"Candy" by Cameo

.Song#:  2979
Date:  12/27/1986
Debut:  80
Peak:  21
Weeks:  17
Genre:  R&B, Dance



Pop Bits:  It took twelve albums and nearly ten years for Cameo to finally land a Top 10 hit on the Pop chart. "Word Up," the first single from their album of the same name, made it to #6 at Pop while reaching #1 at both R&B and Dance. The hit also helped the album become their first platinum seller (#8 Pop/#1 R&B). Hoping for another crossover hit, the band released this follow-up single. Although it would become their third chart topper at R&B, it couldn't do as well as "Word Up" on the Pop chart and stalled just shy of the Top 20. Still, the back-to-back hits raised the band's profile and put them at a whole new level.

ReduxReview:  While not as massively hooky as "Word Up," this was an interesting follow-up. There was something alluring and mesmerizing about the song that kept your attention. From Larry Blackmon's strangely accented voice to the waves of synths to the sax breaks, the tune was a bit odd. It wasn't a track that I would say was a hit, yet there was something about it that made you want to hear it again. Blackmon's production certainly set the song apart and it sounded great when cranked. It was an unusual single that actually worked.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) The sax on this song was performed by jazz musician Michael Brecker. In addition to playing on a multitude of tracks by big stars like Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Dire Straits, and Steely Dan, Brecker would be nominated for 28 Grammy awards for performance and composition. He would win 15. Brecker would die in 2007 due to complications from leukemia.  2) Feel like you have heard parts of this song before? You most likely have. It has been sample many times over the years by artists like 2Pac, Will Smith, The Black Eyed Peas, and Beyoncé. Perhaps its most heard use was when it was sampled on Mariah Carey's 2001 hit "Loverboy." That song, recorded for the soundtrack to her film Glitter, became a #2 hit. However, "Candy" was not the first sample choice for Carey's record. She initially wanted to use a sample of "Firecracker," a 1978 track by the Yellow Magic Orchestra. Around this time, Carey had left Colombia Records for Virgin and had divorced her husband Tommy Mottola, who was working for Sony. He started working with Jennifer Lopez and when he got wind of Carey using "Firecracker," he sought permission to use it for a Lopez song. Indeed they did and samples of the song were used on Lopez's 2001 #1 hit "I'm Real." It ended up getting released prior to Carey's original "Loverboy," so she scrapped that version and started over again with the sample from "Candy." Regardless of the shenanigans, both artists ended up with significant hits.

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