Hey Sandy

"Hey Sandy" is a song by the indie rock band Polaris which serves as the theme song for the Nickelodeon television show The Adventures of Pete & Pete. It's well-known by fans of the show and the band alike for its lyrics, which are not only nearly indecipherable in the first place, but also have generated considerable debate as to their meaning.

The full lyrics were a subject of speculation for several years until they were (mostly) revealed to fans by band members. One line, the third one and the most difficult one to understand, was purposefully left a mystery by head songwriter Mark Mulcahy.

Lyrics

Hey Smilin' strange

You're lookin' happily deranged

Can you settle to shoot me?

Or have you picked your target yet?

Hey Sandy (ai ai ai ai)

Don't you talk back (ai ai ai)

Hey Sandy

Five feet away

End of speech it's the end of the day

We was only funnin

But guiltily I thought you had it coming

Hey Sandy (ai ai ai ai)

Don't you talk back (ai ai ai)

Hey Sandy (Ai ai ai ai) Hey Sandy

Don't you talk back(ai ai ai)

(Ai ai ai ai) Hey Sandy

Don't you talk back(ai ai ai)

Hey Sandy, yeah

Missing Lyric

On the DVD set, the subtitles render the line as "Can you settle to shoot me?", but are not claimed to be an official interpretation of the song's lyrics.

On the DVD commentary for season 2 of The Adventures of Pete and Pete, one of the show's creators, Chris Viscardi, mentions the missing lyric and says, "I've actually become very passionate about keeping that line a secret." He does not mention why.

Additions

The full album version of "Hey Sandy" contains an introduction with a man speaking the following words:

Jupiter, or Thor, is perfect. We need Atlas for our long-distance stuff. The Titan will be even better. They shouldn't have cancelled Navajo. Wait 'til you see our submarines with Polaris.

Besides a reference to the band's name, this sound bite is in fact discussing United States ballistic missiles designed during the Cold War:

• the intermediate-range Jupiter and Thor IRBM
• the Atlas ICBM, the first successful US intercontinental ballistic missile (for "long-distance stuff")
• the Titan family of ICBMs, successors of Atlas
• the cancelled SM-64 Navaho, an experimental cruise missile developed by the U. S. Air Force
• the UGM-27 Polaris, a submarine-launched ballistic missile

The initial sample is abruptly cut off and followed by another sample of a radio transmission, ostensibly from a military base:

Attention all personnel, this is CVTS. Base vehicle pre-count operations will start on my mark in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

External links

• Lyrics as revealed by a Polaris band member
• Harvey Andrews's "Hey Sandy" lyrics