Songoftheday 4/12/15 - This stuff is starting now, it's the same feeling I always seem to get around you...

"Candy" - Cameo
from the album Word Up! (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's Song of the Day comes from the funk band Cameo, who had finally broke through on pop radio with their club jam "Word Up!" in 1986. Their follow-up single, "Candy", was based on a loose, fluid bassline hook that codpieced lead singer Larry Blackmon sang in an almost comically inflected voice while backup Tomi Jenkins (who co-wrote the song with Larry) and Nathan Leftenant cooed the title chorus in the background...

"Candy" became the band's second top-40 pop hit in March of 1987, while landing the trio their third #1 R&B hit. The 12" remix climbed to #10 on Billboard's Dance Club Play list as well. The track also reached the top-30 in both Britain and Ireland.

The Word Up! album would be the pinnacle of their pop success. After a third single, "Back And Forth",  that hit the halfway point on the chart, the band released Machismo in 1988, and the first single "You Make Me Work" (a plagiaristic rewrite of "Word Up") nicked the Hot 100 at #85, and #4 R&B. When the 90s came in and funk was overtaken by new jack swing and rap, Cameo nabbed their most recent top-10 R&B hit with "I Want It Now" in 1990. Two years later, another single "Money" became a top-5 club hit with the help of a techno remix. Their last charting hit as a lead artist, "You Are My Love" only clipped the list at #99 in 1995.

Fast forward to 2001, when Mariah Carey sampled "Candy" on the first single from her Glitter movie/soundtrack, "Loverboy", earning them a featured artist credit. The single brought the act their highest-charting rank at #2, and their fourth #1 R&B hit.

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and here's the band performing the song live on Arsenio...

In 1997, Will Smith enlisted the band for his "Candy" from Big Willie Style...

..and here's the #2 hit "Loverboy" from Mariah featuring Cameo from 2001...

...and back to Cameo with the top-10 club remix of the song...

Up tomorrow: a song for a storefront doll.