Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)

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" Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) " is a 1972 song written and composed by Elliot Lurie and recorded by Lurie's Looking Glass band on their debut album Looking Glass. This single reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box top 100 charts, remaining in the top spot for one week. It reached number two on the former chart for four weeks, stuck behind Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)", before reaching number one, only for "Brandy" to be overthrown by "Alone Again (Naturally)" a week after. Billboard ranked as the 12th song of 1972. The horns and strings are set by Larry Fallon.

Video Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)

Song info

Synopsis

The lyrics tell of Brandy, a barman in a busy western port town serving "a hundred boats a day." Although a lonely sailor played with him, he missed someone who had long since left him.

The urban myth that Brandy is based on Mary Ellis (1750-1828), an old maiden in New Brunswick, New Jersey, has been denied by Lurie herself.

Lurie also denied the suggestion that the song was written by songwriter Stephen Homner, and was eventually sold to Elliot Lurie after Lurie expressed interest in the song.

Before and after

In February 1972, Robert Mandel was the Epic Records Promotion Manager in Washington, D.C. He received a test pressing an album by a new group called "Looking Glass". He took the pressing test around to every radio station in the Washington/Baltimore area. At that time, WPGC AM/FM is one of the top Top 40 stations in the country and is the number one radio station in DC. Harv Moore is the Program Director. He put the song into an hour-long rotation for two days and as Harv related at the time, "the switchboard lights up like a Christmas tree". He said that he had never received such a response in a record for 15 years on the radio. Based on broadcasts on WPGC and all other Top 40 stations that followed, Epic in a hurry released the single "Brandy". On request, two weeks later, when the single finally reached the store, "Brandy" was number one in DC without a single copy sold. Other stations around the country started playing it and eventually became the number one seller. A year later when Harv celebrated his 10th birthday at WPGC, Looking Glass avenged him and played on a bash station held in his honor.

Barry Manilow "Mandy"

Barry Manilow 1974 "Mandy" is a cover of the song originally titled "Brandy", released in February 1972 by Scott English; However, Manilow changed the title following a single Looking Glass success, so as not to get two songs that were confused. This song is not related to the song by Looking Glass.

Usage

This song is used in Lords of Dogtown movies, Say Anything..., Charlie's Angels The Very Brady Sequel , and Lymelife. It was also used in an episode of the 2009 Harper's Island television show, and it can be heard in the background in a scene set in the longshoremen bar in Season 2 of The Wire >. The beautiful instrumental version of Music can be heard in the background when Chris Knight is visiting his future future employer in the movie Real Genius .

In the episode of "Simpsons" Principal Charming, Selma sang the song (using a slower, sadder tempo and tone) to Lisa as she put her to sleep. In the companion book series "The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album" Marge wrote that the paternal grandmother once told her that the song "Brandy" was based on the life of Marge's father's grandfather.

Doug Heffernan (Kevin James) sang this song in karaoke in an episode of The King of Queens.

The song appears in the computer game "Tropico 2", which takes place in a user-made beachside pirate town. One of the citizens thinking is "Brandy, you're a good girl. You'll be fine!"

In Sarah Borges's album Silver City by Sarah Borges, the song "Same Old 45" recounts Brandy's story from his perspective.

Fantasy writer Alex Bledsoe uses Brandy's name and the song's story for his novel Wake of the Bloody Angel.

Paul Stanley of rock band KISS wrote that Brandy helped inspire the hit band Hard Luck Woman in his memoir of 2014 Face the Music: A Life Exposed.

The song was ranked 13th of 76 top songs of the 1970s by the WDDF Radio internet radio station on their 2016 countdown.

The song is included in the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 . It appears in the opening scene and again in a scene at Ego the Living Planet, when the Ego uses the lyrics as a metaphor to describe his experience as a wandering Celestial cosmos who fell in love with Peter Quill's mother on Earth. Ego calls the song "one of Earth's biggest music compositions, probably the biggest."

Name popularity effect

After the song's release in 1972, "Brandy" increased in popularity as the name of a girl in the United States. According to data from the Social Security Administration, taken from "Social Security card applications for births occurring in the United States," Brandy was the most popular name of 353 in 1971, 140 in 1972, and, in 1973 (the first year after the popularity of the song) , 82nd.

cover version

• Red Hot Chili Peppers performed cover versions of songs on their Live in Hyde Park album and during their 2004 tour. They re-do it in May 2017 for the first time in twelve years.
• Jungle Washboard often features this song as an encore, and recorded it on their 1994 album The i Wash Cycle. They play it much faster than the original version or Chili Peppers.
• Kenny Chesney did a cover version for Target Bonus Tracks on his 2005 album The Road and the Radio .
• Gonzalez features the cover of this song which was released as a single on the EMI label.
• Ray Conniff and His Singer covered the song on 1972's album Alone Again (Naturally) .

Maps Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)

Personnel

• Elliot Lurie - Guitar, vocals
• Larry Gonsky - Keyboard, vocals
• Piet Sweval - Bass, vocals, harp
• Charles Galligan - Drum kit
• Chuck Connolly - Back up vocals
• James Giampa - Congas
• Larry Fallon - Horn settings

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Performance chart

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References

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External links

• Lyrics of this song in MetroLyrics

Source of the article : Wikipedia