Brandy You're A Fine Girl Golden Rainbow Don't It Make You Feel Good Looking Glass

Brandy You're A Fine Girl Album: Looking Glass (1972) Track 2
Golden Rainbow side 1 Track 4
Don't It Make You Feel Good side 2 Track 1 (5th overall)
by Looking Glass

The four members of Looking Glass are alumni of Rutgers University, and the Spring 2009 Rutgers alumni magazine carried an article about Brandy You're A Fine Girl and the band itself. The pertinent part reads:

"The band recorded the song seven times before they got it right. 'Brandy' - based on the name of (lead singer) Elliot Lurie's high school sweetheart 'Randy' - tells the story of a musician torn between his love for a life at sea and his love for a barmaid. Released as the B-side of 'Don't It Make You Feel Good,' the song was overlooked, as was the A-side, for that matter, until Harv Moore, a Washington DC disc jockey took it up as a personal cause. After years of playing covers and their originals at frat parties and bars in the New Brunswick area, Looking Glass was signed to Epic Records by the legendary Clive Davis.

The band, appearing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand and at Carnegie Hall, never came close to matching 'Brandy's' success. And by 1973, Lurie had left for a solo career. He was replaced, but the band soon fell apart. In 1995, Looking Glass reunited to perform 'Brandy' and 'Jimmie loves Mary-Anne' at a Madison Square Garden concert. in 2000, 'Brandy' was part of the sound track for the film Charlie's Angels, for which band members and Peter Sweval's estate each received a royalty check of $30K (Sweval died of AIDS in 1992).

The members of the band also receive the modest sum of $4K each year for the general use of the song. Says former drummer Jeff Grob, wistfully: 'If only liquor commercials were allowed on TV.

Where the former band members are today: Larry Gonsky RC'70 (keyboards) teaches music in the Morristown school district; Jeff Grob CC'85 (drums) after playing with the hard-rock band Starz, returned to school and earned his landscape architecture degree. He works for Stantec, which contributed to the redesign of Route 18. He still plays locally with Richie Ranno's All Stars; Elliot Lurie RC'70 (lead guitar) manages actors and recording artists, including Corbin Bleu of High School Musical fame, in Los Angeles. He worked as an independent music film supervisor and executive vice president of music at 20th Century Fox; Pieter Sweval RC'70 (bass) played with Starz and the disco band Skatt Bros before dying of AIDS in 192. Royalties are donated by Sweval's family to AIDS research."

The band was signed by Clive Davis, a famous record executive who has nurtured the careers of many successful artists, including Santana, Billy Joel and Whitney Houston. Davis has a knack for knowing a hit song when he hears one, but he got this one wrong, releasing it as the B-side of their song "Don't It Make You Feel Good." Harv Moore, a disc jockey in Washington DC, flipped the record and played "Brandy" instead. It became very popular in the DC area, and quickly spread nationwide.

This was not typical of the band's sound, which caused a problem at concerts. While audiences expected pop songs like this one, the Looking Glass played rock, which left the crowds disappointed. The band broke up less than two years later.
There was a song called "Brandy" by an artist named Scott English that was popular around the same time in the UK. When Barry Manilow recorded it, he changed the title to "Mandy" to avoid confusion with this song.

Selma sings Brandy You're A Fine Girl to Lisa in the 1991 episode of The Simpsons, "Principal Charming." It has also appeared on these shows:

ER ("Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic" - 2001)
The King of Queens ("G'Night Stalker" - 2005)
Scorpion ("Father's Day" - 2014)
Better Call Saul ("Breaking Bad" - 2022)

Some of the movie uses for Brandy You're A Fine Girl include A Night at the Roxbury (1998), Loser (2000), Charlie's Angels (2000) and Lords of Dogtown (2005).

After the Looking Glass split up, Elliot Lurie moved to Los Angeles, where he worked on a number of films as a music supervisor; his credits include Stuart Little, Alien 3 and Spanglish. He picked up his guitar again in the '10s when he was summoned by the Yacht Rock Revue, who told him that "Brandy" was one of the most popular songs in the genre. After explaining the concept of Yacht Rock to Laurie, they invited him to perform with them, which he did on a regular basis.

This song plays a big role in the 2017 film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, where it plays in the opening scene, a flashback to before the lead character, Peter (Chris Pratt), was born. When Peter reunites with his father, Ego (Kurt Russell), the song comes to represent their conflict, as Ego wants Peter to help him rule the universe. To convince his son, he quotes the song, explaining that world domination is Peter's destiny, as was the sea for the sailor who left Brandy behind.

In the film, Ego left Peter's mother to die on Earth while he went off to conquer the universe. While Ego relates to the sailor in this song, Peter doesn't buy it, choosing instead to honor his mother (an analog to Brandy) and battle against his father.

The film's director, James Gunn, also did the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, where he used lots of '70s hits for the soundtrack. A big fan of "Brandy," he sought it out for the sequel.

Elliot Lurie - Guitars, lead vocals
Pieter "Piet" Sweval - Bass, lead vocals, harp on "Catherine Street" and "From Stanton Station"
Larry Gonsky - Keyboards, background vocals
Jeff Grob - Drums
Chuck Connolly - Backup vocals on "Brandy"
Tasha Thomas, Barbara Massey, Carolyn Davis - Backup vocals on "Don't It Make You Feel Good" (credited as Tasha Thomas and the Feel Good Girls)
Eddie Hinton - Guitar (with Elliot Lurie) on "Golden Rainbow"
James Giampa - Congas on "Brandy"
Larry Fallon - Horns/Strings arrangements
Tim Geelan, Wayne Tarnowski, Pete Weiss (on "Brandy", uncredited), Billy Radice - Engineer
Ed Lee - Cover design
KLN Photos Inc. - Cover photo
Bob Liftin - Producer/Audio Consultant
Mike Gershman - Executive producer
Steve Paley - Special thanks/Back cover photo
Don Ellis, Steve Baron, Sandy Linzer, Karmic Guardians - Special thanks
All songs published by Evie Music Inc./ Spruce Run Music and Chappell & Co., Inc. (ASCAP)