P.S. I think a spick is a nationality reference and a speck is what you usually find when you are actually looking for much bigger gems.
Spick in Spick and Span relates to having a new boat which still has 'spicks' or shiny new nails, and 'span' which is the wood chips from assembling the boat. ie, - clean and new. Spic is also a derogatory term for hispanics.
Specks are either small scraps, eg as in gem hunting, or yummy cured bacon.
The Bee Gee's seem to have made up the combined term. It does kind of make sense to think of Spicks as the shiny good bits of life, and Specks as the bits that weren't quite what you were after.
Reckon I deserve a degree from the legendary ANU School of Inconsequential Studies after that effort.