Friday Music for a Sweet Tooth

As a treat after swim practice, we sometimes swing by Ricky's Candy Cones & Chaos, where the butter pecan ice cream is what every other butter pecan ice cream I've ever had was trying to be.

The trouble with Ricky's, if you should ever spend more than 10 minutes there, is the candy-themed music. In a half an hour at the place, I heard two different versions of "Sugar" (one by the Archies and one by, I think, the Bradys), and both Gene Wilder and Sammy singing "The Candy Man."

They need help. Here's what I came up with:

"Candy," Iggy Pop
"Candy," Morphine
"So Like Candy," Elvis Costello
"Big Rock Candy Mountain," Woody Guthrie
"Ice Cream," Sarah McLachlan
"Ice Cream," Muscles
"Chocolate Jesus," Tom Waits
"Banana Splits Theme," The Dickies
"Tupelo Honey," Van Morrison
"Sugar Water," Cibo Matto
"I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl," Nina Simone

What else? Something from the Mighty Lemon Drops maybe? Further suggestions, please, in comments.

Comments

[Mike Molloy]

"I Taste Just Like Candy", Foxy Brown

[Mark Z.]

"Brown Sugar", the Rolling Stones

[liquidlen]

Good Ship Lollipop - Shirley Temple
Candy - Cameo
Lollipop - The Chordettes

[Josh]

Ice Cream Man - Van Halen
Sugar on my Tongue - Talking Heads

[ChrisB]

Sex & Candy - Marcy Playground
Sugar Daddy - Hedwig & The Angry Inch
Candy - Candye Kane
Down on the River by the Sugar Plant - Mike Doughty
My Sweet Lord - George Harrison (although I prefer Girlyman's cover)

[Monty]

Rock Candy - Montrose

[Eva-Lise Carlstrom]

Big Rock Candy Mountain - Harry McClintock (or possibly trad.) and others
Jeannie's Got a Dime (She Wants to Buy Candy) - I regret I can't identify the artist for this song, which I have on a promotional CD somewhere
I Want Candy - The Strangeloves, Bow Wow Wow, and others
Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch - The Temptations

[Rosina]

Les Bonbons - Jacques Brel

Sweets for my sweet - the Searchers

[MikeJ]

Yummy Yummy Yummy, I Got Love in My Tummy

[Martin]

Some Candy Talking - Jesus and Mary Chain
Candy Says - Velvet Underground

[Matt]

Def Leppard's "Pour some sugar on me."

May God have mercy on my soul.

[Mark]

Sweetness Follows - R.E.M?

[Vermic]

"Candy-O", The Cars
"Lips Like Sugar," Echo & the Bunnymen
"Milkshake", Kelis

Also, "Under the Milky Way" by The Church is a lot more fun if you pretend they're singing about the candy bar.

[Dave Lartigue]

Ice Cream Man -- Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
Candy Everybody Wants -- 10,000 Maniacs
I Only Eat Candy -- Nerf Herder
Candy Floss -- Wilco
Icing Sugar -- The Cure

[Hamadryad]

"Candy Man" by The Mary Jane Girls
"Ice Cream Castles" by The Time

[Andrew]

Candy's Room, Bruce Springsteen

[Hamadryad]

Oh shoot - and "Candy Girl" by New Edition.

[Chris]

"Sugar Sugar," Wilson Pickett (dump the Archies' version for this one).
"Sugar," Carla Thomas.
"Candy," The Astors.
"Sugar Coated Love," Bill Monroe.
"Sugar Coated Love," Freddy Fender (different song).
"Candy Kisses," George Morgan.
"Homemade Ice Cream," Tony Joe White.
"Sugar Babe," Jesse Colin Young.
"Sugar Mama," John Lee Hooker.
"Sugar Bee," Canned Heat.
"Sugar Shack," Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs

[cminus]

"Chocolate," Snow Patrol
"Birthday Cake," Cibo Matto
"The Candy Man," Cibo Matto
"White Pepper Ice Cream," Cibo Matto
"Wild Mountain Honey," Steve Miller Band
"The Sweetest Thing," U2
"Incense And Peppermints," The Strawberry Alarm Clock
"Cups And Cakes," Spinal Tap
"I Love Rocky Road," Weird Al Yankovic
"The White Stuff," Weird Al Yankovic (1)
"Candy," Presidents of the United States of America (2)

(1) About the stuff in the middle of an Oreo.
(2) Actually about candy, not someone named Candy.

[Drak Pope]

"Candy Shop" by 50 Cent

Candy Wrapper: The Album by That Makes Nice

Oh, jeez, I can't continue anymore. This discussion is giving me diabetes. Later.

[Andy]

Also 'Ice Cream Man' by Tom Waits. Popular song title...

[Tonio]

"Candy Girl" - Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

In the Sarah McLachlan song, when she sings, "It's a long way down to the place where we started from," does that mean what my dirty mind thinks it means?

Trivia note - the guitarist for Strawberry Alarm Clock, Ed King, later played with Lynard Skynard.

I had heard "Big Rock Candy Mountain" as a kid, but with watered-down G-rated lyrics that stripped the song of its metaphorical meaning. I didn't know about that metaphor until I heard the original McClintock version on the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack. George Orwell understood the metaphor when he used the "Sugarcandy Mountain" version of heaven in "Animal Farm."

And "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch" was a hit not for the Temptations but for their Motown labelmates, the Four Tops. There might be a Temptations version somewhere - Motown often had several performers and producers record the same song. Check out the CD "Motown Sings Motown Treasures."

[Tonio]

"I heard two different versions of 'Sugar' (one by the Archies and one by, I think, the Bradys), and both Gene Wilder and Sammy singing 'The Candy Man.'
They need help."

Fred, the store is probably using candy-themed and ice-cream-themed CDs that they purchased somewhere. I have an idea - you could make a custom-mixed CD or two of the songs listed here, and offer to exchange it for butter pecan.

I had the same experience - I took my kids to a water park recently, and the music was the same 12 beach-themed songs over and over. If they're going to play the Beach Boys, they should at least expand the playlist to include stuff the almighty "Pet Sounds."

[alphabitch]

Hokey Pokey (The Ice Cream Song) Richard & Linda Thompson
No Sugar Tonight - The Guess Who
Sugar Mountain - Neil Young
Sugar Bee - Jo-El Sonnier
Sugar Mama - Bonnie Raitt
Shake Sugaree (Libba Cotten, Mary Lou Lord, Mud Boy & the Neutrons, Greg Brown, etc.)
I Ain't Got No Sugar Baby Now - Roscoe Holcomb
Froot Loop Dreams - Shonen Knife
Honey Bee - Koerner Ray & Glover
Honeybees - Kate Jacobs
Honey in the Rock - Tarbox Ramblers, Blind Mamie Forehand
Honey - Moby
Honey Now -Gillian Welch
Honey Pie - and Wild Honey Pie - the Beatles
Milk and Honey - Jeffrey Dean Foster
Honey White - Morphine

Plus I've got a Bob Marley version of "Sugar, Sugar" in addition to the ones by Wilson Pickett and the Archies

[damnedyankee]

"I Love Rocky Road" by Weird Al Yankovic (may Joan Jett forgive me)

[Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little]

Popsicle (Of Love) - Talking Heads
Porcupine Pie - Neil Diamond (for the mention of "chicken ripple ice cream," of course)

[Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little]

Oh, and "Candy" by Presidents Of The United States Of America

"Now the Devil, she made sweet candy
Took six days and nights to dream
On the seventh day, she rested
Took off early and made ice cream

"Now the Devil, she must be a dentist
With deep jawbreaker eyes,
Red rope hair, gumdrop lips,
And cotton candy thighs"

[Lizzy L]

Sugar Magnolia - The Grateful Dead

[damnedyankee]

Because you gotta take the salty with the sweet:

"Popcorn" by Hot Butter

[amber]

All That's Sweet - Bleach
Hard Candy - Counting Crows
Sweet Talkin' Woman - ELO
Sweet Transvestite
Smoothie Song - Nickel Creek

And how about Cake?

[Dr. Steve]

Do you mean Rickie's on Gay St. in West Chester?
My daughter and I frequent that place often. Last time I was there they had maybe 5 songs on a loop - I don't know how the employees could stand it. I was there for 20 minutes and was comtemplating self-flaggelation with the Cow Tails.

How about "Sweet child O'mine" by Guns N' Roses (is that cannibalistic?)

[Dr. Steve]

Or how about one of the dozen or so songs by Little Kim that sounds like it could be about eating candy?

[damnedyankee]

Having once worked under very similar conditions, I can assure you that the employees learn to tune out the music very quickly. Or they have a psychotic episode. Either way, problem solved.

[Andy]

Candy Man - The Grateful Dead (obviously, a completely different song than the Sammy Davis one)

[Jason]

Sugar Baby - Bob Dylan

Collected works of the Lemonheads.

[Andy]

How about Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas"? (Can someone tell me what a "hard candy Christmas" is? thanks)

Also, if Jenkins and LaHaye are right about this Rapture thing, I hope it's this afternoon. I have GOT to get out of my temp job.

[Andy]

Oh, and has no one mentioned Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" yet?

[GeoX]

I may be late to this party, but we can't forget Nick Cave's "Sugar Sugar Sugar."

[alphabitch]

Oh, and Dolly Parton's "Sugar Hill" also.

[Tim Lehnerer]

Kurt Russell did a cover of "Sugar Sugar" in his Disney film stage. It's not very good, but it's out there on CD for the dedicated hunter.

Glenda Collins did a rather fantastic cover of "Lollipop" by the Chordettes; it's produced by Joe Meek so I am predisposed to like it.

The Simpsons had a pop medley of candy themed songs on one episode (the spinoff-parody one IIRC); they did "Whip It" as a tribute to licorice whips.

"My Boy Lollipop" would also work; it's by a Jamaican artist whose name eludes me.

"Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las mentions that the singer met the eponymous Leader "at the candy store".

[pharoute]

"Brown Sugar" ZZ Top
"Sugar Kane" Sonic Youth
"Sugar Never Tasted So Good" White Stripes

[Dave]

"Popsicle Toes" by Donna Krall

[Greekhoop]

I scrolled through my entire iPod. I think I need to get out of my temp job, too.

Cakewalk - The Snake, the Cross, and the Crown
Candyman - Siouxsie and the Banshees
Cherry Cola - Eagles of Death Metal
Chips Ahoy - The Hold Steady
Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young (or Type O Negative!)
Mint Car - The Cure
Slow Like Honey - Fionna Apple
Soda Jerk - Buffalo Tom
Sour Patch Kids - Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Sugar in the Sacrament - Thursday
Sweet Little Thing - Lucero
Sweet Love Hangover - Love and Rockets
Sweet, Sweet - The Smashing Pumpkins

Also, there's Ho-Ho by The Birthday Party, though I imagine it's less about a delicious snack cake and more about some weird gutteral noise Nick Cave can make.

[daniel]

"Just like honey", The Jesus & Mary Chain

[Steve]

Sweet Sweetheart - The Brady Bunch Kids
I Scream Sunday - One Bad Pig

Obvious:
Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
Sweet Love - Anita Baker

[Ian Mathers]

Ash - Candy
Yo La Tengo - Sugarcube
Trick Daddy - Sugar (pastiches the aforementioned "Sugar on my Tongue" by Talking Heads)
Junior Walker - How Sweet It Is
Jimmy Eat World - Sweetness
Deacon Blue - Chocolate Girl

[julia]

It's In His Kiss. Natch.

[Cat]

"Cherry Pie" - Warrant
"Candy Floss" - Curve
"Sweetest Pie" - Curve
"Sugar Rush" - Jade Anderson
"Sweetness" - Yes

That last one is gorgeous, and probably the only G-rated one in the bunch.

[Cat]

Oh, and I had the most amazing chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream today, in the small town where I grew up. Used to be Farquhar's Dairy was who you bought to support small local business; now their ice cream is apparently getting attention. One of the places that sells Farquhar's cones has to compete with the local Dairy Queen, so they've been known to load up the cone a little more. Well, I went in there today, saw that they had chocolate chip cookie dough, and asked for a kiddie cone, just to taste. They gave me two huge scoops of vanilla ice cream so rich it was more like eating vanilla frosting directly out of the container, studded with cookie dough and REALLY good semisweet chocolate. I enjoyed it muchly.

[Nick Lamb]

Obviously "Let them eat ice cream" by the KLF, right? Except the lyrics never directly mention that phrase.

Hmmm, if they're also a Pepsi outlet then "Drink it up" by Negativland is tempting because it mentions so many soft drink products in the course of its not especailly subversive message about the effect of advertising.

I guess no-one mentioned Tori Amos because she isn't family-friendly but particularly "Sugar", "Sweet Dreams" and in particular "Raspbery Swirl" seem thematic.