"Earache My Eye..." - Cheech & Chong

Whether there was a dj edit or not, I wonder if some stations edited out the rock song portion of the record and just played the spoken comedy part by Cheech & Chong.

Jim, I'm glad that you chimed in, as I'd been awaiting someone else's experience with "Earache" before responding. I was serviced with a stock copy at my college station, but A&M was one of those labels that typically suspended service to college radio during the summer - when this single came out - and sent a "care package" each September that included those singles and LPs which had become hits during the summer hiatus. The majority of the singles in those annual care packages were stock copies.

The first commercial station I worked at also had been serviced with a stock copy. I, too, have often wondered whether a DJ 45 ever existed.

On the plus side, the stock copy did come in that lovely (?) picture sleeve. And its B-side, "Turn That Thing Down" has always proven to be a big hit at Name That Tune parties! :)

There were four top-40 stations here in the Twin Cities when "Earache" was a hit, and I never heard anything other than the complete single.

This was the very first 45 that I ever bought! I was 8 years-old at the time and me and my older brother would ride our bikes to the local Target store every Saturday to buy records. I also only remember the full version being played on the local Top 40 stations. After all, "Alice Bowie" WAS the featured "artist" and if you cut off the "song", you don't get the full Alice experience.

EdisonLite wrote: I didn't even know there were Target stores back then in the mid '70s! I never knew of the chain until I moved out to California in 1989.

Gordon, the Northeast was one of Target's last areas for expansion. To give you an idea how long it took them to get there, here's the first 45 I ever bought at Target (Store #2, to be precise.)

EdisonLite wrote: I didn't even know there were Target stores back then in the mid '70s! I never knew of the chain until I moved out to California in 1989.

Well, I've got you beat...I've lived most of my life in New Hampshire, and I don't recall seeing a Target until they opened up the one in Hooksett in the late 90s.

Getting back to the original topic, ISTR the station I worked at playing a somewhat shorter version with the "Alice Bowie" segment shortened. We played it off cart so it may have been a station edit...we did do some custom edits. I don't have the single myself, but somewhere in the disorganized pile of boxes in the garage I'm pretty sure I have a reel-to-reel dub of the version we played. When time permits I'll take a look.