"Candyman" is a swing jazz song written by Christina Aguilera and Linda Perry for Aguilera's third studio album, Back to Basics (2006). It was released as the album's third and final American single in early 2007 (see 2007 in music). In December 2007, it received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Background and writing

Perry and Aguilera have said that the song is new lyrics to music that is a new arrangement of The Andrews Sisters' 1941 hit "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". Critics usually compliment Aguilera for the authentic replication of the old style.

The song includes the military cadence "Tarzan & Jane Swingin' on a Vine", sampled from the album Run to Cadence with the U.S. Marines, Volume 2.

Release

Originally, "Candyman" was to be the second single off the album, but the label pushed for "Hurt" hoping it would have comparable success to 2002's "Beautiful" and would become a holiday hit. The song was released on February 5, 2007 in the US, although Aguilera had already performed it on New Year's Rockin' Eve. The song debuted in the January 20, 2007 release of the Billboard Hot 100. "Candyman" peaked at #25 in its seventh week on the chart making it Christina Aguilera's 14th top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. In the UK it was released on download only, peaking at #17 on the UK main singles chart and getting over 100,000 digital downloads. The song performed very well in Oceania, peaking #2 in both Australia and New Zealand and remaining in the Australian Top10 over 15 weeks.

In December 2007, it received a Grammy Award nomimation for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at this years 50th Annual Grammy Awards.