Sweet Like Candy

For some reason, generally attributed to a variety of ancient pagan holidays and Christian traditions with histories too deep and interwoven to dive into here, Halloween is a major holiday in the United States. And for SOME reason, we don’t really blink an eye when sending kids out in costume to collect candy from neighbors they likely don’t know. Does it make a lot of logical sense? No, not really. But is it fun to race around the neighborhood collecting and eating as much sugar as possible before your parents take your sack of hard-earned treats hostage? Oh heck yeah it is.

Even though it’s the season, this isn’t a Halloween playlist. This one’s for candy.

Bow Wow Wow with “I Want Candy”

Got a sweet tooth? You can blame your ancestors. Since sugars were a more rare find back in the day (but still necessary for maintaining energy), those who were predisposed to liking sugar had a higher chance of survival. Repeat this over thousands and thousands and thousands of years and you get a population of people who will stop at nothing to get their hands on a peanut butter cup. Man, those things are good though.

Baby Bash and Frankie J with “Suga Suga”

Nutritional science lesson time! A double sugar, also known as a disaccharide, is two simple sugars (monosaccharides) linked together. Along with monosaccharides, these simple sugars are broken down by the body for quick releases of energy. However, too much of these simple sugars causes a spike in insulin (your body’s way of regulating absorption of glucose, the brain’s main fuel source) which leads to...drumroll please...a sugar crash. Next time your kid is teetering on the edge and begging for an extra dose of sugar just let them in on this fun fact, we’re sure they’ll understand.

Maroon 5 with “Sugar”

We happen to have someone here at Knockaround who looks identical to Adam Levine. If you swing by a trade show, you just might see him. That’s all we’ll say on that topic.

The Chordettes with “Lollipop”

Apparently in the Middle Ages, nobles would eat boiling sugar off of sticks or handles, in effect creating the first candy that resembles the modern lollipop. What a ridiculous mental image though. A king, surrounded by pillows, wearing some sort of wig, covered in jewels and fancy garments, decreeing decrees, repeatedly sucking on a sugar covered twig like a 4 year old...

Echo & the Bunnymen with “Lips Like Sugar”

If you’re ever in doubt about how far candy has come in the past century, look no further than “wax lips.” Whatever bonkers inventor came up with eating food grade paraffin wax clearly didn’t have a lot to base “yummy” off of, and the fact that it was actually a popular candy item in the early 20th century speaks volumes about the selection of sweets available at the time. Granted there was some novelty in the “wearing fake lips” part, but after that fun wore off your options were: A) discard your wax lips in the nearest wastebasket, or B) gnaw on a ball of barely sweet wax until it disintegrates in your mouth like a sad, over-chewed piece of alien gum. Let’s just say, we’re glad someone decided to move past these and keep on experimenting with new stuff.

Def Leppard with “Pour Some Sugar On Me”

We haven’t ever really done a candy themed Special Release (other than two separate bubblegum ones waaaay back in the day), but we have collaborated with Pepsi in the past! Which, if you think about it, is basically liquid candy. But hey, at least this stuff quenches thirst!

Sammy Davis Jr. with “The Candy Man”

At our office in San Diego, you’ll find a variety of containers topped with candy. From gumball machines, to clear canning jars filled to the brim with exclusively banana flavored Runts (that’s a story for another time), they add a bit of charm and whimsy to the place. Just don’t try to eat them or you might need an emergency trip to the dentist office.

Julie Andrews with “A Spoonful of Sugar”

Since vaccines are the talk of the town these days, this bit of history should fit right in. After a long day of working on Mary Poppins (the 1964 original), writer Robert Sherman came home and asked his family how their days had gone. Upon hearing his son remark that he’d gotten his polio vaccine, and assuming it had been administered via injection, he asked his son, “did it hurt?” His son responded, “they just put it on a sugar cube and you eat it!” Right then and there, Sherman called his writing partner (and brother) and they penned “A Spoonful of Sugar” the next day. It’s now one of the most popular Disney songs of all time!

Harry McClintock with “The Big Rock Candy Mountain”

Old timey candy was somethin’ else, wasn’t it? Rock candy, root beer barrels, Necco wafers, candy dots (not the chewy ones from the movie theatre, the ones where it’s just sugar nuggets stuck to paper which nearly always comes with when you bite away the pieces). Just like the wax lips thing, it’s quite nice how far we’ve come in terms of candy technology.

Fall Out Boy with “Sugar, We’re Going Down”

There’s certainly a benefit to watching sugar intake. But hey, we’ve all gotta live a little. This Halloween, go for that extra Snickers. Life is short, enjoy the candy.

That being said...