Marcy Playground – Sex and Candy (Tab)
Following on from No Rain with another 90s one-hit wonder: Marcy Playgraound’s Sex and Candy.
The song only has verses and choruses but they still manage to sneak in three key changes. The verses are in G and the choruses in Bb.
The key change from the verse to the chorus is very smooth. Although the Bb note (A-string, 1st fret) isn’t in the key of G, we’ve heard it a lot in the Eb chord and the melody. So the transition that occurs during the “I smell sex and…” part is seamless.
The key change back at the end of the chorus calls attention to itself though. In bar 20 the chords shift down half a step to D to set up the key of G. A bit of theory: the most common way to change key is to play the V chord of the key you’re changing to. This sets up the new key rather than diving straight into it. In this case, D is the V chord of G.
