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{{More citations needed|date=October 2016}}

"'''Earache My Eye'''"is a song by [[Cheech and Chong]] which "features" Alice Bowie (one of [[Cheech Marin]]'s characters. It is featured on ''[[Cheech & Chong's Wedding Album]]'' ([[1974]]) as well as their ''[[Greatest Hit]]'' album from [[1981]] and their ''[[Where There's Smoke There's Cheech & Chong]]'' double-CD anthology from [[2002]]. Cheech And Chong also [[lip sync]] to the recording (with Chong behind the drum kit instead of guitar, which he played on the original recording) in their first movie ''[[Up in Smoke]]'' ([[1978]]). The musical portion of this piece has been covered by bands like [[Rollins Band]], [[Scatterbrain]], [[KoЯn]] and [[Soundgarden]]. This piece is considered to be one of the greatest novelty audio pieces of all time, and has been featured repeatedly on the [[Doctor Demento]] radio program.

{{Infobox song

| name = Earache My Eye

| cover = Earache My Eye.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = [[Cheech and Chong]]

| album = [[Cheech & Chong's Wedding Album]]

| B-side = Turn That Thing Down

| released = {{start date|1974|07|}}

| format =

| recorded =

| studio =

| venue =

| genre = [[Comedy rock]], [[hard rock]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://grammymuseum.org/event/cheech-chong-still-rollin-celebrating-40-years-of-up-in-smoke/ |title=Cheech & Chong: Still Rollin' – Celebrating 40 Years of ''Up in Smoke'' |website=Grammy Museum |access-date=September 18, 2021}}</ref>

| length = {{duration|m=5|s=21}}

| label = {{hlist|[[Ode Records]]|[[Warner Bros. Records|Warner Bros.]]|[[Rhino Records]]}}

| writer = {{hlist|[[Tommy Chong]]|[[Gaye Delorme]]|[[Cheech Marin|Richard Marin]]}}

| producer = [[Lou Adler]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Cheech-Chong-Earache-My-Eye-Turn-That-Thing-Down/release/1556511 |title=Cheech & Chong – Earache My Eye / Turn That Thing Down |website=Discogs |date= 1974|accessdate=2018-01-21}}</ref>

| prev_title = [[Sister Mary Elephant]]

| prev_year = 1973

| next_title = [[Black Lassie (A Great American Dog)]]

| next_year = 1974

}}

"'''Earache My Eye'''" is a comedy routine and song by [[Cheech and Chong]] from their 1974 album ''[[Cheech & Chong's Wedding Album]]''. The skit is about a teenager (played by [[Tommy Chong]]) who wakes up and listens to a song by "Alice Bowie" ([[Cheech Marin]]), while his father (also played by Marin) yells at him to get ready for school.

In the routine, [[Tommy Chong]] plays a punk high school student with an attitude. At the beginning of the piece he's snoring. We hear an alarm clock, and then Chong wakes up noisily. He starts up a record of mainstream metal rock with Cheech Marin singing the lyrics as if he were an [[Alice Cooper]] clone.

The song, unnamed in the skit, was released as a single under the name "Earache My Eye" and gained surprising popularity, reaching the top 10 on the charts in the United States and Canada. It has since been covered by many artists most notably Eminem on the song Untouchable ,Widespread Panic, Korn, and Soundgarden. The song had its music written by [[Gaye Delorme]] and was performed by session musicians including Delorme on guitar and [[Airto Moreira]] on drums. It is best known for its guitar riff.

The song was also released as a single in [[1974]], containing the musical portion of the song only. The single version appears on ''[[Greatest Hit]]''.

==History==

The routine first appeared on ''[[Cheech & Chong's Wedding Album]]'' ([[1974 in music|1974]]). It was later included on the greatest hits collections ''[[Cheech & Chong's Greatest Hit]]'' ([[1981 in music|1981]]) and ''[[Where There's Smoke There's Cheech & Chong]]'', the latter a double-CD anthology from [[2002 in music|2002]].

Cheech and Chong [[lip sync]] to the recording (with Chong behind the drum kit) in their first movie ''[[Up in Smoke]]'' (1978). The song has been featured repeatedly on the [[Dr. Demento]] radio show, and it is included on the ''[[Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection]]''. According to Tommy Chong's autobiography, the famous guitar [[riff]] is played by [[Gaye Delorme]], who also composed the music for the song. Additionally, Chong states that drums on the song are played by famed international percussionist [[Airto Moreira]].

The song was released as a single in 1974 and reached #9 on the Billboard charts and #4 in [[Canada]]. In [[Chicago]], it topped the charts at the powerful and influential [[Contemporary hit radio|Top 40 radio]] station [[WLS (AM)]], holding the #1 position for one week in September 1974, in the middle of an eleven-week run on the station's [[top 40]] airplay charts. The song also reached the top spot for one week on the West Coast's biggest [[Contemporary hit radio|Top 40 radio]] station, [[Los Angeles]]' [[KHJ-AM]]. The B-side, "Turn That Thing Down", features the remainder of the musical track from the point of Marin's [[monologue]] about his wealth, without the actual dialogue, complete to its conclusion. It is possible to assemble the full-length version of the song by editing the two sections together. An edited version that fades out before the skit appears on the soundtrack for ''[[Up in Smoke]]'' and the ''[[Cheech & Chong's Greatest Hit|Greatest Hit]]'' compilation.

Once the song hit its peak on the charts, radio station managers and owners, especially the AM stations, pulled the song off the air following multiple complaints. Phone calls and angry letters came from parents, teachers, psychologists, clergy, principals, school administrators, and counselors. Complaints stated that this song mostly appealed to junkies, dropouts, drug addicts, and drunkards as well as students playing hooky from class, giving them a bad model for their behavior. Those who opposed the track threatened to boycott the stations unless the song was permanently withdrawn. "Oldies" station AM 1110 KRLA banned the track, and some radio managers threatened to fire any disc jockey who played it. Sponsors threatened to pull their advertisements unless the song was completely removed from playlists. The AM stations threatened to fire any radio station employees who accepted requests or discussed the track on the air.

==Content==

"Earache My Eye" consists of a song followed by a comedy skit.

In the skit, Chong plays a rebellious [[teen]]. At the beginning of the piece we hear snoring, followed by an alarm clock, and then the boy wakes up noisily. He starts up a [[glam rock]] record, with Cheech Marin singing the lyrics as glam rock star character Alice Bowie who, as the name implies, is supposed to be a combination of [[Alice Cooper]] and [[David Bowie#Ziggy Stardust|Ziggy Stardust]]-era [[David Bowie]] (at one point in his tune, "Alice Bowie" even mentions having orange hair, which the real David Bowie had sported at that time). The song itself is about a teenager fantasizing about becoming a world-famous rock star, becoming very wealthy and not having to listen to authority as a result, including being disowned for wearing his sister's pantyhose. The teenager states that he did not care if the world came to an end and that he was kicked off the basketball team by the coach for "wearing high-heeled sneakers and acting like a [[queen (slang)|queen]]."

As the song continues into an electric guitar-heavy bridge, the teen's father (Marin) barges into the room and yells, "I said turn that thing down and get ready for school!", and scratches the record, which annoys the boy. The father then tells his son to get his "fanny perpendicular" and get ready for school. The son then complains about an earache, prompting the dad to exclaim, "Earache my eye, how would you like a butt-ache?" The boy then gets even snottier, provoking his father to swat him with a belt. When he ridicules the spanking as painless, the father then whips him into sniveling, outward compliance, which lasts until his father leaves the room, after which the teen puts the record back on.

During the latter part of the record ("Turn That Thing Down") – essentially, an extended, electric rock guitar-driven coda, beginning from Alice Bowie's rant about being wealthy (albeit without the lyrics) – the father can be heard knocking on the door several times demanding that his son "turn that thing down and get ready for school".

==Charts ==

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!Chart (1974)

!Peak position

|-

|Australian ([[Kent Music Report]])<ref name=aus>{{cite book|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|edition=illustrated|publisher=Australian Chart Book|___location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6|page=60}}</ref>

|align="center"|26

|-

|U.S. [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]]<ref>{{cite book |title= Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 14th Edition: 1955-2012 |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |authorlink=Joel Whitburn |year=2013 |publisher=Record Research |page=159}}</ref>

|align="center"|9

|}

==Influence==

The musical portion of "Earache My Eye" was written originally by Canadian artist [[Gaye Delorme]], a resident of Edmonton, AB. The song has been covered by many bands, ranging in styles from [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]] to [[Hip hop music|hip hop]]. The comedy-metal group [[Scatterbrain (band)|Scatterbrain]] covered the song on their album ''[[Here Comes Trouble (Scatterbrain album)|Here Comes Trouble]]''.

[[Korn]] released the song as a hidden track at the end of "My Gift to You" from their 1998 album ''[[Follow the Leader (Korn album)|Follow the Leader]]'', with [[Cheech Marin]] appearing as a guest vocalist. The recording was reissued on the compilations ''[[Live and Rare (Korn album)|Live and Rare]]'' and ''[[Playlist: The Very Best of Korn]]'', separated from "My Gift to You".

[[Rollins Band]]<ref>Released initially in 1990 part of the [[Sub Pop]] singles club, catalog number SP72; and later on the 1993 ''Hammer of the Rök Gödz'' EP, released by [[Imago Records]] catalog number IM28024-2-DJ</ref> and [[Soundgarden]] both covered the song, and the hip-hop group [[2 Live Crew]] used a sample from the song on their 1989 album ''[[As Nasty As They Wanna Be]]'' for the song "Dirty Nursery Rhymes". The [[Canadians|Canadian]] power trio [[Rush (band)|Rush]] have used the song's signature riff live, to end "[[The Big Money]]", (whose album version ends with a fade) on the live album ''[[A Show of Hands]]'' and the final riff of the same show as depicted in the [[A Show of Hands (video)|video of the same name]]. It was also used to end Tom Sawyer on the band's Snakes & Arrows World Tour and can be heard on the subsequent live album.

[[Electric Magma]] used the song's main riff in a song titled "The Chong Song" which appears on the 2007 release, ''Coconut Bangers Ball''.<ref>{{cite web |author= |url=http://www.electricmagma.com/media/coconut-bangers-ball-january-2007/ |title=Coconut Bangers Ball (January 2007) |publisher=Electric Magma |date= |accessdate=2016-10-09 |archive-date=2016-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103185736/http://www.electricmagma.com/media/coconut-bangers-ball-january-2007/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Gov't Mule]] covered the song at the Vic Theatre in Chicago, Illinois on April 15, 2000, with Brodie Hutchinson, soundman, performing the spoken word portion and this is available as a Classic Muletracks.

The [[Kottonmouth Kings]] also sampled this classic on the song "Loadies" from their album ''Cloud Nine''.

[[Raging Slab]] also covered the song on their 1991 release, ''Slabbage / True Death''.<ref>{{cite web|author= |url=https://www.amazon.com/Slabbage-True-Death-Raging-Slab/dp/B000003BIT |title=Raging Slab - Slabbage / True Death - Amazon.com Music |website=Amazon.com |date= |accessdate=2016-10-09}}</ref>

A sample of the song was heard in the 1995 film ''[[National Lampoon's Senior Trip]]''.

[[Widespread Panic]] covered it on Halloween 2014 in [[Broomfield, Colorado]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.everydaycompanion.com/setlists/20141031a.asp |title=Everyday Companion Online - 10/31/14 1st Bank Center |website=Everydaycompanion.com |date= |accessdate=2016-10-09}}</ref>

[[Eminem]] sampled the song on his track [[Untouchable (Eminem song)|"Untouchable"]], from his album [[Revival (Eminem album)|''Revival'']].

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==External links==

*{{AllMusic|class=song|id=t268333|label=Earache My Eye}}

[http://www.dubba.com/hookah/lyrics/earachemyeye.htm Lyrics to song]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1974 songssingles]]

[[Category:Canadian comedy songs]]

[[Category:American comedy songs]]

[[Category:Cheech and Chong songs]]

[[Category:American comedy rock songs]]

[[Category:Canadian comedy rock songs]]

[[Category:Canadian hard rock songs]]

[[Category:Canadian novelty songs]]

[[Category:Ode Records singles]]

[[Category:Rollins Band songs]]

[[Category:Song recordings produced by Lou Adler]]