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Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)

"Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)"
Brandy - Looking Glass.jpg
Single by Looking Glass
from the album Looking Glass
B-side "One by One"
Released May 18, 1972
Format 7"
Recorded 1972
Genre Soft rock
Length 2:55 (Single remix/edit)
3:10 (Album mix version)
Label Epic Records
Writer(s) Elliot Lurie
Producer(s) Mike Gershman, Bob Liftin and the Looking Glass
Looking Glass singles chronology
"Golden Rainbow"
(1972)
"Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)"
(1972)
"Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne"
(1973)

"Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" is a 1972 song written and composed by Elliot Lurie and recorded by Lurie's band, Looking Glass, on their debut album Looking Glass. The single reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 charts, remaining in the top position for one week. Billboard ranked it as the 12th song of 1972. Horns and strings were arranged by Larry Fallon.

The lyrics tell of Brandy, a barmaid in a port town. She falls in love with a sailor who gives her a locket that bears his name. In the end, Brandy is left in love with "a man who's not around." The urban myth that Brandy was based on Mary Ellis (1750–1828), a spinster in New Brunswick, New Jersey, has been refuted by Lurie himself.

In February 1972, Robert Mandel was the Epic Records Promotion Manager in Washington, DC. He received a test pressing of an album by a new group named "Looking Glass". He took the test pressing around to every radio station in the Washington/Baltimore region. At the time, WPGC AM/FM was one of the leading Top 40 stations in the country and was the number one radio station in DC. Harv Moore was the Program Director. He put the song into a one-hour rotation for two days and as Harv related at the time, "the switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree". He said that he had never received a response like that on a record in his 15 years in radio. Based on the airplay at WPGC and all the other Top 40 stations that followed, Epic rush-released the single of "Brandy". Based on requests alone, two weeks later, when the single finally hit the stores, "Brandy" was the number one record in DC without a single copy yet sold. Other stations around the country started playing it and it ended up being a number one million seller. A year later when Harv celebrated his 10th Anniversary at WPGC, Looking Glass returned the favor and played at the bash the station held in his honor.


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Wikipedia

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