"Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" is a 1972 pop song written by
Elliot Lurie and recorded by Lurie's band Looking Glass on
their debut album
Looking Glass. The single reached number one on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart, remaining in the top position for one
week. Horns and strings were arranged by Larry Fallon.
The lyrics tell of Brandy, a barmaid in a port town. She
wins the admiration of many of the sailors, but cannot return
their feelings—the love of her life was unwilling to abandon
his true love, the sea. In spite of this, Brandy continues to
love the sailor and wears a braided silver chain with a locket
that bears his name. It's been suggested the song is inspired
by the real life story of Mary Ellis, whose grave resides in
New Brunswick, New Jersey where the band was formed.
"Brandy" was the B-side of another Looking Glass song, and
is rumored to have become an accidental hit when a DJ played
the wrong side of the 45; although the flip side "One by One"
has a running time of 6:01, which makes the rumor somewhat
improbable.
The success of "Brandy" created a bit of difficulty for
Looking Glass, in that the song's mellow pop sound was atypical
of their normally somewhat harder-edged style; many fans of the
single who attended the band's concerts were reportedly taken
aback by a more rockish sounding band than they'd been
expecting to hear.
Barry Manilow's 1974 "Mandy" was originally titled "Brandy"
but Manilow changed it following the success of the Looking
Glass single, so as not to get the two songs confused.
This song was used in the films
Lords of Dogtown,
Charlie's Angels, and
LymeLife.
Doug Heffernan sings this song at karaoke in an episode of
The King of Queens.
Following the song's release in 1972, "Brandy" increased in
popularity as a girl's name in the United States. According to
data from the Social Security Administration [1], drawn from
"Social Security card applications for births that occurred in
the United States, Brandy was the 353rd most popular name in
1971, 140th in 1972, and, in 1973 (the first full year after
the song's popularity), 82nd.