Christina Aguilera "Candyman (Single & Video)"

"Candyman" is a song by American singer Christina Aguilera from the second disc of her fifth studio album, Back to Basics (2006). "Candyman" was planned to be released as the second single from Back to Basics; however, RCA Records decided to release "Hurt" instead. Subsequently, the track was released on February 20, 2007, as the third single from the album. "Candyman" is described as a pop and jazz song that imitates swing music whose lyrics are about sexual intercourse.

"Candyman" received praise for its musical style while some criticized its sexual content. Commercially, the single peaked within the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Hungary, New Zealand and Romania, as well as the top 20 in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, it peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling one million copies in the country. "Candyman" is also certified Gold in seven additional countries.

A music video for the song was co-directed by Matthew Rolston and Aguilera herself. The video received an MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best Direction at the 2007 award ceremony. The single achieved a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 2008 ceremony. The song was on the setlist of Aguilera's Back to Basics Tour (2006–2008) and has been covered by Alexandra Burke and the Glee cast.

"Candyman" was described as a pop song by Leah Greenblatt from Entertainment Weekly; Stylus Magazine's Thomas Inskeep opined that it imitated swing music, while Joan Anderman from The Boston Globe commented that Perry and Aguilera attempted to modernize early 20th century pop and blues "only to end up imitating the Andrews Sisters," and Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani characterized the song as standard jazz and blues. "Candyman" is composed on the key of E major. The song has a moderate tempo of 172 beats per minute. Aguilera's vocals on the song span two octaves from the low-note of G3 to the high-note of G5. The song opens and concludes with the lyrics, "Tarzan and Jane were swingin' on a vine / Sippin' from a bottle of vodka double-wine", which was credited as a sample used from "Tarzan & Jane Swingin' on a Vine" from Run To Cadence With U.S. Marines. Lyrically, "Candyman" talks about sexual intercourse; Jenny Eliscu for Rolling Stone quoted the lyrics "He's a one-stop shop / Makes the panties drop" and deemed it "nasty". Sputnikmusic's Amanda Murray described its lyrics as "dumb and cheekily vulgar".

Jim McMillen played the trombone, while Ray Herrmann and Glen Berger performed the saxophone, and Chris Tedesco played the trumpet. Perry also played the piano, mellotron, bass, and served as the musical director. Nathan Wetherington played the drums. According to Aguilera and Perry, the song was a tribute to the Andrews Sisters' song, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy".

The music video for "Candyman" was filmed on January 28, 2007, in an airport hangar in Southern California. It was directed by Matthew Rolston and co-directed by Aguilera. The video is based on the 1940s World War II theme. In most of the music video, she dances and sings in three different hair colors: red, blonde and brown, as if she were in a singing trio, a tribute to The Andrews Sisters. In other shots she appears as the famous biceps-flexing factory worker from Westinghouse's "We Can Do It!" poster and as pin-up girls Judy Garland, Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth. The video also features product placement for Campari. Benji Schwimmer, 2006 winner of the American dancing competition So You Think You Can Dance, makes a cameo appearance as Aguilera's GI dance partner. Benji's sister Lacey Schwimmer also appears in the video as a jitterbugger. Aguilera asked Rolston to co-direct the video with her after he worked with her for a photo shoot for the cover of Rolling Stone. Shooting the sequences of Aguilera as a singing trio took the longest since they had to be shot for each hair color and camera angle, which was computer-controlled for precision. Choreography was carefully arranged so that none of the versions overlapped and the takes could be spliced together. The clip's color scheme is based on Technicolor films, focusing on primary colors and bright secondary colors.

Sal Cinquemani for Slant Magazine praised it as the best video for a song from Back to Basics. John Montgomery for MTV News commented on Aguilera's "bad girl" image, writing "though Aguilera's mostly going for glam here, she's also plenty bad, too, swinging her way into some servicemen's heart, coyly sipping on a milkshake and shaking it so hard your even your grandpa had to notice." The video brought Aguilera and Rolston an MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best Direction at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, but lost to Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around... Comes Around".

Track listings and formats

Digital download

1. "Candyman" – 3:14

CD single

1. "Candyman" – 3:14
2. "Hurt" (Snowflake Mix) – 4:05

France maxi single

1. "Candyman" – 3:14
2. "Hurt" (Snowflake Radio Mix) – 4:05