Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, 1969.
Just a couple of stoners about to hit it big — you’re looking at Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong in a very early photo shoot. Their debut comedy album, Cheech & Chong, would come out in 1971, bringing their brand of self-ridiculing marijuana-infused humor into the mainstream. Cheech & Chong peaked at #28 on the Billboard album chart; the follow-ups Big Bambu (1972) and Los Cochinos (1973) both made it all the way to #2, and Los Cochinos won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1974. The huge popularity of these early albums set up the next phase of their career, in which they starred in fairly successful movies such as Up In Smoke(1978), Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie (1980) and Nice Dreams (1981). In the mid-’80s, the pair split up but they have since reunited on numerous projects.