If you went to high school in the late ’90s, then there’s a very good chance that you found “Sex And Candy,” the one hit from Minneapolis trio Marcy Playground, to be an active irritant, if not a life-ruiner. How could a song about two great things, sex and candy, turn out like this? In 1998, I dated a girl named Candice, and she hated that song with the fire of a thousand suns. But time moves on, and people slightly younger than me have come to regard that song as a source of nostalgia. Mama, this surely is a dream.

Who’s that loungin’ in our cherry tree? Why, it’s Hurray For The Riff Raff, who joins Slothrust and Dehd on the list of artists covering “Sex And Candy.” Hurray For The Riff Raff released an album called The Past Is Still Alive earlier this year, and that title apparently applies to a song that’s better off dead.

In a new session for Public Opinion, Alynda Segarra and guitarist Johnny Wilson play a few songs acoustic in a living room. They run through the Hurray For The Riff Raff tracks “Alibi,” “Buffalo,” “Colossus Of Roads,” and “Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)” before taking a crack at “Sex And Candy.” Segarra refers to the track as her “go-to karaoke song” and as “horny bisexual music.” Below, watch the Hurray For The Riff Raff cover, which begins at the 19:23 mark, as well as the original Marcy. Playground video.

A recent episode of Love Island used an ominous acoustic “Sex And Candy” cover than honestly had me snort-laughing.