Brandy (You're A Fine Girl) by Looking Glass

“Brandy” music video

“Brandy” live performance by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

On my brother’s wedding day, all of the bridal party was preparing at my parents house. While the bridesmaids were getting ready, me and the other groomsmen had some time to kill. So I found a popular music fake book and started playing songs on the piano. One of the other groomsmen started looking through the book and of got really excited when he found “Brandy” by Looking Glass. I started playing the song on the piano and we enthusiastically rocked out to “Brandy.”

If it’s hard to imagine a bunch of guys who are almost thirty years old rocking out to a song that was released in 1972, then maybe this will help. This is a live performance of “Brandy” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Look at how happy they look. There's flea joyously jumping up and down while playing bass, Chad Smith drumming away with a huge smile, and John Fruciante on guitar blissfully strumming away. It's hard to watch this performance and not smile

“Brandy” tells the story of a girl who works in a bar in a harbor town. She serves “whiskey and wine” to tired sailors as they talk about their homes. The sailors say: “Brandy you’re a fine girl, what a good wife you would be, yeah your eyes could steal a sailor from the sea.”

Amongst the sailors that flirt with Brandy, there is one who has stole her heart. She wears a locket that bears the name of a man who came on one summer’s day, but “he made it clear that he couldn’t stay.” This sailor has a slightly different message for brandy: “Brandy you’re a fine girl, what a good wife you would be, but my life, my love and my lady is the seas.”

The song goes on to tell the how Brandy used to listen to the sailor’s stories. She could “feel the ocean fall and rise, she saw it’s raging glory.” Yeah, “raging glory” go ahead ponder that one for a little bit. The narrator reiterates that the sailor never gave any illusions about his commitment to Brandy and she does the best she can to understand why she is alone.

At it's heart of this song is a sad story. It’s about a girl who has ended up in a harbor town and spends time serving people at the bar. There is a sense of being social with these men but these relationships for the most part are not truly friendships. It’s simply part of her job.

When Brandy finally finds a man who brings her gifts and seems to care about her, she falls in love with him despite the fact that he had made it clear that he has no intention to stay. There is a hope against circumstance in her mind that he will come back and stay with her her.

It seems that Brandy should move on but in a dead end town and in a dead end job, it’s all that Brandy has to hope for. I imagine that even though Brandy is not a remarkably intelligent girl, she has with a big heart. It is because of this that despite her situation she endears herself to the listener.

The song rises and falls like the sea itself building up to the “doodoo Doodoodoo Doo doo doo Doo Doo.” Each verse starts calmer and builds to the last line of the chorus. The strings and especially the brass lines add not only harmony but also counter-melodies to the song. The brass instruments play different material in each verse and each chorus providing everything from a calm undercurrent in the second verse (“he came on a summer day”) to the rising waves in the bridge.

Looking Glass had some difficulty with the success of “Brandy” which reached number on the charts. “Brandy” and its mellow rock sound was not indicative of most of their music which had a harder rock edge to it. People came to their concerts to hear “Brandy” and music like it and often left disappointed. This is a common for rock bands to have their biggest hit be a more pop orientated song (i.e. Aerosmith’s only number one single was “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” composed and recorded for the film Armageddon).

I understand how this could be frustrating for Looking Glass, but what they created has endured. “Brandy” is often put labeled a “one-hit wonder” which is a title that carries both a sense of mockery and failure with it. Mockery in the fact that people wonder how it could have possibly became a hit and failure looking down on the artists’ lack of ability to have another hit.

I view it differently. For every one-hit wonder there are countless other artist who never even have that one hit. Yes, some one-hit wonders are not good and are products of over-promotion and cultural brain-farts but “Brandy” is more than that. This song holds an appeal that goes beyond camp and mockery but to a genuine level of enjoyment.

"Brandy" is a song that simply feels good and sometimes that is all that matters.
I may not remember the first time I listened to “Brandy” but I don’t ever want to forget singing this song with those groomsmen on that sunny afternoon.

doodoo Doodoodoo Doo doo doo Doo! Doo!