“Candy Everybody Wants” by 10,000 Maniacs

"Candy Everybody Wants" was the second single from Our Time in Eden, 10,000 Maniacs' fifth album, from 1992, and Elektra put it out in March 1993. Natalie Merchant wrote it with keyboardist Dennis Drew, and it pairs a pointed bit of social satire with some of the brightest music the band ever made.

The joke is in that contrast. Producer Paul Fox gives the track a strutting, brassy soul bounce, and the horn section is the real deal: Maceo Parker on alto, Pee Wee Ellis on tenor and Fred Wesley on trombone. Robert Buck layers an electric sitar in among his guitars, Steven Gustafson and Jerome Augustyniak keep the groove tight on bass and drums, and Drew adds Hammond organ. Rolling Stone heard it as a jab at America's hunger for sex and violence on television and at the corporations happy to keep feeding it, all sung by Merchant with a sweet, cool smile.

The single came padded with covers: Morrissey's "Everyday Is Like Sunday", R.E.M.'s "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" and the old traditional "Sally Ann".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.