I would hope Music Week will give his up to date total UK album sales next week with TTC being released. RKTVS has sold either slightly under or slightly over a million now. Those figs Better Man posted were I last I could find too but Rudebox had sold 514,000 - I remember that beig the last updated fig for it.

 

According to Music Week from late September - Rob has sold 14.1M albums so far since 2000 in the UK. If you add his 97-00 sales it brings the total to 19.85M in the UK.

 

Your figures on your site look good Better Man - the latest official total is 60M albums. The exact sales of each album to bring it up to that total are difficult to estimate as EMI never give a breakdown. When RKTVS was released he was on 55M - a year later the figure was 'over 57M' for the IAOOC album. RKTVS has now sold around 3M and IAOOC probably near to 2M or maybe more considering it is shipments we are taking about = bringing it to 60M.

 

Single sales wise - he was on 7.6M prior to 'Candy' - so he should be up to 8M by the end of the year.

 

My figure for IAOOC was too high- it should be 669,700 to 01.09.12

 

As for RKTVS its sales in 09 were 753k, and in 2010 145,600 (95th biggest seller of the year) making a total of 898,600 to the end of that year.

Combined 'Candy is still about 6% ahead and considering it's been 10-15% ahead Sunday-early today then it's looking good for another week at #1 but sales are going to be very close.

Random post but I really don't like Emile Sande. I fear I may be alone in that opinion though :lol:

10 Years since 'Candy' was released and was his as of right now last #1!

 

Haven't heard it in ages, good track.

10 Years since 'Candy' was released and was his as of right now last #1!

 

Haven't heard it in ages, good track.

 

Oh my goodness -how can that be ten years? :o

Oh my goodness -how can that be ten years? :o

 

I know feels weird that it's a decade old already. I forgot that it sold a lot in its first week too. Even more impressive when his earlier #1's didn't all pass 100k first week too.

Candy has an interesting history chart wise etc , did pretty ok & the official video proved to be very popular with 100ml hits to date

 

 

Background and release

The track was originally rumoured to be titled "Vertigo". Williams said of the track: "It's a summer song, very much in a similar vein to 'Rock DJ', about a girl who thinks she's great. And she might be, but she's a bit nefarious with her ways. Some songs take an age to write and some songs just fall out of your mouth completely formed, and you don't have to think about it. I don't know why that fell out of my mouth and out of my brain at that particular time – it just did."[4] On 10 September, Williams debuted "Candy" on Radio 2's Breakfast Show with host Chris Evans.[5] The official artwork for the track features a model of Williams's head covered in pink and red spots.[5]

 

"Candy" was written by Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow and Terje Olsen, while production was handled by Jacknife Lee.[6] The song samples Norwegian producer Todd Terje's single "Eurodans".[7] In the hook, he uses nursery rhymes about the plague (Ring a Ring o' Roses) and taxes.[8] "Hey ho here she goes/ Either a little too high or a little too low/ Got no self-esteem and vertigo/ Cause she thinks she's made of candy," Williams chants on the chorus.[9] The song contains melodic elements of the nursery rhyme Ring a Ring o' Roses and even contains the title of the rhyme at the start of the second verse.

 

Reception

Critical response

Lewis Corner of Digital Spy gave the song 4 out of 5 stars, writing that "'Candy' doesn't touch the dizzying heights of 'Rock DJ' or 'Angels', but it's also far from his worst song to date." Corner also wrote: "Robbie chants on a bouncy, playground chant of a chorus brassier than his stage persona – and there within lies the charm."[9] John Bush of AllMusic wrote that "The trailer single 'Candy' is a trite, uptempo track with a sing-song chorus but not much of a shelf life, it's the perfect radio hit."[10] Sam Lanksy of Idolator wrote the song "is sprightly and spunky with a clever hook – arguably the best sweets-related diss since Annie's 'Chewing Gum'."[11] Tom Hocknell of BBC Music called it "catchier than Velcro, although it’s unclear why anyone needs to own it – after the second listen it owns you. It’s eager to please, certainly."[12]

 

Alexis Petridis of The Guardian was less positive, writing that "[...] It's so desperate to be a smash hit that it ends up sounding like one of those novelty singles that used to blight the September charts, bought by returning holidaymakers with rosy memories of the hotel disco; all it's lacking is an accompanying dance."[13] Philip Matusavage of musicOMH also gave the song a mixed review, writing that "It's a neat précis of the problems facing Robbie in 2012. Its bouncy dancehall brass is undeniably and infectiously catchy but it’s also short-lived; the song leaves no impression at its end."[14] Kitty Empire of The Observer observed that "it would better suit a boy band in a Caribbean time warp. But somehow, it looks as if it will re-establish Williams's presence in the charts today, regardless."[15]

 

Chart performance

In Germany, "Candy" broke an airplay record for the most plays in a week.[16] It peaked at number 3 on the main chart. In Austria, the song was a success, debuting and peaking, for three consecutive weeks, at number 4 on the Ö3 Austria Top 40 chart.[17] "Candy" was a growing success in the Netherlands, debuting at number 27 on the Dutch Top 40 chart.[18] After six weeks climbing the charts, the song entered the top-ten, reaching number 6, on 10 November 2012. In the Dutch Mega Top 100 "Candy" reached number 1 on 17 November 2012.[18] It reached top 10 in more than 20 countries, and Top 40 in other territories including Japan and New Zealand.

 

In his native UK, despite BBC Radio 1 not putting it on their playlist, "Candy" gathered over 10,000 radio spins before the official digital release.[19] The song later achieved more than 30,000 spins on UK radio.[20] On the UK Singles Chart, "Candy" became the singer's first number-one in eight years (the last being 2004's "Radio"), his seventh solo UK number-one and the 14th number-one of his career (including Take That and solo material).[21] It also became his fastest-selling single in the UK since "Rock DJ" 12 years earlier, and with 137,000 copies sold that week, it also became the fastest-selling male artist single of the year, and the third fastest-selling single of 2012 overall.[22] The song remained number one on the UK Singles Chart for a second week, shifting 90,000 copies.[23] It was the 22nd best-selling single of 2012 in the UK, with sales of 503,000.[24] In June 2013, "Candy" became Robbie's second biggest hit in the UK, after "Angels", with sales passing the 650,000 mark.

 

Source Wiki

Lewis Corner of Digital Spy gave the song 4 out of 5 stars, writing that "'Candy' doesn't touch the dizzying heights of 'Rock DJ' or 'Angels', but it's also far from his worst song to date

Praise indeed! :lol: :unsure: :lol:

Gary Barlow Candy

 

 

 

Video thanks to Samuel Poynton

Edited December 1, 20222 yr by Sydney11

It is interesting to read the comments on youtube. Many people recognized an actress who Robbie protect in Candy who seems to be quite known between younger people. And about two years ago somehow Candy was used for small tiktok videos so very young people searched for the song...who do not even know Robbie :-)

Candy is always great live - it's fun :cheer:

This song came up loads of times in the recent Robbie Williams Rewind Podcast as a favourite for the upcoming tour setlist . It's not a favourite of mine live but it seemed to appeal to a lot of young people with over 100 ml views of the official video on YT & 49k in comments , mostly good

This was the 2013 Brit performance 😎

Edited April 25Apr 25 by Sydney11

I like Candy - I think it's good live. 👍

I do like Candy but i often forget about it too.