Basketball Jones featuring Tyrone Shoelaces

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Basketball Jones featuring Tyrone Shoelaces”
“Basketball Jones featuring Tyrone Shoelaces” cover
Single by Cheech and Chong
from the album Los Cochinos
Released October 1973
Genre Comedy rock
Length 4:04
Label Ode Records

"Basketball Jones featuring Tyrone Shoelaces" is a song by Cheech and Chong that first appeared on the 1973 album Los Cochinos.

Sung by Cheech Marin, playing the title character Tyrone (as in "tie-your-own") Shoelaces, it told the story of Shoelaces' love of basketball. It was a parody of the song "Love Jones" by Brighter Side of Darkness. In the album version, the song was preceded by a mock interview with Jones' basketball coach named "Umgwana Kickbooti" (or something like that), in a parody of a Wide World of Sports interview conducted by a character named "Red Blazer". "Jones", both in the original song and this parody, is slang for "craving" or "addiction".

Musicians who appeared on the record included George Harrison, Carole King, Billy Preston, and Tom Scott. The Blossoms and Michelle Phillips (from The Mamas & the Papas) performed vocals as cheerleaders on the track.

The song was released as a single in October 1973 and reached #15 in the US charts.

An animated short film called Basketball Jones was created to promote the release of the single. The cartoon became better known when it was featured in the 1979 Peter Sellers film Being There.

The song was covered by Barry White and Chris Rock in the 1996 film Space Jam.

The song is featured in a 2008 commercial for the Television Series House of Payne.

[edit] Credits

[edit] References

  1. ^ (1973) Album notes for Los Cochinos ©#!!* by Cheech y Chong [CD]. Los Cochinos ©#!!* at MusicBrainz.
 This 1970s single-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.