For Marcy Playground chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!
By Chris Moore:
After both technical difficulties and more than my share of human error for the night, my “Chris Moore Monday” post is here! Not only am I posting a video tonight for the best acoustic cover song music video blog known to man — and humble, too! — but this is actually the first of a double header. Since Jim is away for one more “Jim Fusco Tuesday,” I didn’t want to see anyone go without new material for even a day more.
Tonight’s song is one that would have made me blush in 1997, and to be honest, it still does. Back in late ’97 and early 1998, Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy” was everywhere, particularly if you listened to a modern rock radio station. (CT locals may remember the alternative station Rock 104’s hey day in the nineties.) At the time, this song broke the record for most consecutive weeks at number one on the modern rock charts — 15 weeks, to be specific. Meanwhile, this song catapulted Marcy Playground to one hit wonder status, peaking at a solid number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
To this day, I’m not exactly sure why this song was such a big hit at the time. Structurally, it’s a very simple song, and the vocals are very straightforward. I think the song’s success can be attributed to its provocative lyrics and John Wozniak’s distinct vocals. Fortunately for me, “Woz” as he refers to himself has a vocal range that is well within my own, at least on this song!
There are two reasons I’ve chosen this particular song for tonight’s session. The first is that it reminds me of a time when I was first becoming interested in music, listening to the radio and just beginning to buy CDs at the overpriced Sam Goody’s store in the mall.
You know, another sign that this song was successful is that “Weird” Al included the chorus of “Sex and Candy” in his “Polka Power!” polka medley. If only I, too, could one day have a song parodied by the man, then I would truly know I had earned success. But, until then, I’ll just have to enjoy the new “Weird” Al video for his new song, “CNR.” It’s a style parody of the White Stripes and the video was produced by JibJab, so it’s all the more hilarious. While I thought the “Skipper Dan” video a couple weeks ago was enjoyable, this one is truly great — it made me laugh out loud a couple times and want to watch it again.
Okay, so that’s it for me for now. I’ll see you back here, same Laptop Sessions time, same Laptop Sessions channel.
See you next session!