"Sex and Candy" is a song by American alternative rock group Marcy Playground, a single from their 1997 self-titled debut album.

Lead singer John Wozniak was inspired to write the song after a woman told him that a room smelled like "sex and candy."

A music video was directed and conceptualized by Jamie Caliri, depicting Wozniak's head protruding from a hole inside of a mountain and a crawling spider; it has been interpreted in Freudian terms and compared to the work of Salvador Dalí.

"Sex and Candy" stemmed from a moment in the late 1980s when John Wozniak, who had not yet started Marcy Playground, was in his girlfriend's dormitory at Bryn Mawr College, where his father taught.

[5] According to MTV News, writing "Sex and Candy" was Wozniak's "first stab at coolness" following a childhood where he was isolated and often bullied.

Wozniak described "Sex and Candy" as his attempt to compose a love song which "didn't follow the typical formula, especially with the lyrics.

[5] Nathan Smith of the Houston Press stated "Sex and Candy" was perfect crossover music, as its edgy, sexual lyrics were suitable for rock radio, while it was still "pussy enough for adult contemporary.

[3] Dan Weiss of LA Weekly wrote "Sex and Candy" is the only song on Marcy Playground besides "Saint Joe on the School Bus" that resembles Nirvana's music.

Billboard's Bradley Bambarger and MTV News' Colin Devenish understood it as a love song[2][4] while Rolling Stone's Chuck Eddy said that was about "a sad sack strung out on hippie lingo ('Dig it,' 'Yeah, mama') and caffeine.

[16] Bayer of The A. V. Club said that "There is something powerful in the simplicity and straight-forwardness of the song" and that its "chorus still sounds as captivating and strangely sensual as it did years ago.

"[19] For MTV News, Jon Vena opined that the track "draws you in with sultry lyrics and a chillingly slow...tempo.

[21] Mike Wass of Idolator called the song "a post-grunge classic that is still played with alarming frequency on adult rock radio stations today.

"[8] Mike Joyce of The Washington Post wrote "Some rock bands don't attract radio airplay so much as provoke it.

'"[12] Chuck Eddy of Rolling Stone gave the song a less enthusiastic review, calling it "an unappetizing artificial-sweetener marriage of down-tempo Nirvana chords and greasy Dave Matthews frat-minstrel sensitivity".

[23] The Marcy Playground album drew little notice until a radio station in San Diego began playing "Sex and Candy" and at the same time the song was chosen by filmmaker Morgan J. Freeman for the soundtrack of his film Hurricane Streets.

[7] A week after the song reached the top position on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, he got three offers for those amounts and sold the rights.

Wozniak said that, while he was pleased that the track "became a quintessential '90s moment," he was flabbergasted and overwhelmed by its success, adding that he would not want to produce another hit song of comparable popularity.

[7] Andrew Unterberger of Stylus Magazine wrote of its surprising success, calling it "easily one of the strangest top ten hits in history (Pavement sounds like Sister Hazel by comparison) and as much of a death knell for grunge as 'To Be with You' was for hair metal.

"[35] Jimmy Fallon parodied the song with Halloween-themed lyrics during a Weekend Update sketch on Saturday Night Live.

[8][21] Bustle deemed it the best song on the album and praised it for sounding different from Maroon 5's earlier work,[21] while Idolator said the cover "is a well-executed reminder that the late '90s were, well, completely awesome.

enjoyed the cover, calling it "haunting and raw, closely comparable to the original but threaded with Slothrust's signature smoky grunge.