Not many one-hit wonders can say their song also has an urban legend attached to it, but Looking Glass became a notable exception after rumors began swirling about their 1972 hit track, “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)”. The song describes sailors coming into a bar from being out at sea and talking to the bartender, Brandy, about “what a good wife you would be” and how her “eyes could steal a sailor from the sea.”
Looking Glass released “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” on their eponymous debut album, and the track quickly topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 charts. Before the song’s official release, it gained significant attention after WPGC AM/FM out of Washington, D.C., put a test pressing of the album on its one-hour rotation for a couple of days. So many people called in to ask about the song that Epic rushed the track’s commercial release.
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Sometime after the song came out, an urban legend sprang up that claimed “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” was about Mary Ellis, a feminist landowner who lived in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the latter half of the 18th century. According to this legend, Ellis fell in love with a sailor who promised to come back for her but stayed out at sea instead.
An interesting narrative, certainly—but not true.
Looking Glass’ Elliot Lurie Denies Legend of 1972 One-Hit Wonder
As compelling a story as the 18th-century spinster’s lost love might be, Looking Glass guitarist and co-vocalist Elliot Lurie has said definitively that this isn’t true. Speaking to The Tennessean in 2016, Lurie said the song was “absolutely not” about Mary Ellis. “I have heard that story, and I have seen it online. If that story is true, it’s a remarkable coincidence.” Brandy, Lurie said, was a “made-up individual.”
“The name was derived from a high school girlfriend I had whose name was Randy with an ‘R.’ Usually when I write—I still do it the same way I did back then—I strum some guitar and kind of sing along with the first things that come to mind. Her name came up. Then, I started writing the rest of the song, and it was about a barmaid. I thought Randy was an unusual name for a girl, so it could go either way. The song was about a barmaid, so I changed it to Brandy.”
Ellis was, nevertheless, a real New Brunswick resident back in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Ownership of the property containing her grave has changed multiple times over the years. According to Janice Kohl Sarapin’s Old Burial Grounds of New Jersey: A Guide, her final resting place is now on a patch of preserved grass in the middle of a parking lot for the Route 1 Flea Market of New Brunswick.
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