![\"Tommy](\"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/SAM_1419-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Tommy Chong, his wife Shelby Chong, and Cheech Marin performed at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, PA, in October 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n
Cheech and Chong deserve to be considered for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and here\u2019s why: Because they have four hit singles on their resumes.<\/p>\n
\u201cSanta Claus and His Old Lady,\u201d released in 1971, reached No. 38 on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 chart.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasketball Jones,\u201d released in 1973, reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.<\/p>\n
\u201cSister Mary Elephant,\u201d released in 1973, reached No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1974.<\/p>\n
And \u201cEarache My Eye,\u201d released in 1974, reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.<\/p>\n
What Cheech and Chong contemporary comedian from the 1970s can boast the same recording credentials?<\/p>\n
George Carlin? Brilliantly funny. No hit singles.<\/p>\n
Richard Pryor? Hilarious. No hit singles.<\/p>\n
Lily Tomlin? Laughs galore. No hit singles.<\/p>\n
Those comedians were certainly big-time recording artists in the 1970s and there are a boatload of Grammy nominations among them. But no Top 40 singles.<\/p>\n
Steve Martin would the be exception to this among comedians in the 1970s. A top-notch banjo player, which he incorporated into his comedy act, Martin released the song \u201cKing Tut\u201d as a single in 1978 and it reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.<\/p>\n
But Cheech and Chong were doing something in the 70s that few comics were doing then by incorporating music into their act on a regular basis. (They talk about the inspiration for \u201cBasketball Jones\u201d and the recording of the album \u201cLos Cochinos\u201d in \u201cThe Vinyl Dialogues.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Other comedians of that era would record their live acts and put that on an album. Cheech and Chong would go into the studio and actually write music and arrangements. At the time, that didn\u2019t fit the comedy format.<\/p>\n
Which is another reason they should be considered for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: What they were doing was pretty innovative for its time.<\/p>\n
When it comes to the criteria that is used for enshrinement into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there\u2019s apparently no real formula. The diversity of the acts already enshrined in the R&RHOF makes the process subjective.<\/p>\n
According to the R&RHOF website, though, among the factors considered include \u201can artist\u2019s musical influence on other artists, length and depth of career and the body of work, innovation and superiority in style and technique.\u201d But \u201cmusical excellence shall be the essential qualification of induction.\u201d<\/p>\n
How does Cheech and Chong stack up to that? Well, \u201cEarache My Eye\u201d has been covered by several bands, including by Korn on its album \u201cFollow the Leader\u201d and by Soundgarden on its \u201cCoverin\u2019\u2019 album. Cheech and Chong\u2019s body of work has both length and depth, covering stage, screen and records; and the innovation of what they were doing in the \u201970s with music on their albums has already been discussed.<\/p>\n
That leaves musical excellence. Aside from the four singles already mentioned, there\u2019s the song \u201cMexican Americans\u201d from the 1978 movie \u201cUp in Smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n
If that\u2019s not comedic musical excellence, then what is?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cheech and Chong deserve to be considered for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and here\u2019s why: Because they have four hit singles on their resumes. \u201cSanta Claus and His Old Lady,\u201d released in 1971, reached No. 38 on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 chart. \u201cBasketball Jones,\u201d released in 1973, reached No. 15 on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":57,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[54,221],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tvdbook","tag-cheech-chong","tag-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}