This, That, and the Other

I’m substituting for Jim Adams for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday. But Jim selected this week’s theme based upon a suggestion from Amy (aka E.M. Kingston) to focus on One-Hit Wonders, where an artist or a group had a song that reached the top without any follow-up successes. Have you ever heard of the group Looking Glass? I thought not. But you might be familiar with their song “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl).”

“Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” was a 1972 song by American pop rock band Looking Glass from their debut album, Looking Glass. It was written by Looking Glass lead guitarist and co-vocalist Elliot Lurie. The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and was ranked by Billboard as the number 12 song for 1972.

“Brandy” was based on the name of Lurie’s high school sweetheart, Randy. It tells the story of a musician torn between his love for a life at sea and his love for a barmaid in a busy seaport harbor town that serves “a hundred ships a day.” Though lonely sailors flirt with her, she pines for one who has long since left her because he claimed his life, his love, and his lady, was “the sea.”

Looking Glass never came close to matching the success of “Brandy,” and by 1973, Lurie had left the group for a solo career.

Here are the lyrics to “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl).

There's a port on a western bay
And it serves a hundred ships a day
Lonely sailors pass the time away
And talk about their homes

And there's a girl in this harbor town
And she works layin' whiskey down
They say, Brandy, fetch another round
She serves them whiskey and wine

The sailors say: "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl)
"What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl)
"Yeah, your eyes could steal a sailor from the sea"

Brandy wears a braided chain
Made of finest silver from the North of Spain
A locket that bears the name
Of the man that Brandy loved

He came on a summer's day
Bringin' gifts from far away
But he made it clear he couldn't stay
No harbor was his home

The sailors say: "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl)
"What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl)
"But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea"

Yeah, Brandy used to watch his eyes
When he told his sailor stories
She could feel the ocean fall and rise
She saw its ragin' glory
But he had always told the truth, Lord, he was an honest man
And Brandy does her best to understand

At night when the bars close down
Brandy walks through a silent town
And loves a man who's not around
She still can hear him say

She hears him say "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl)
"What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl)
"But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea"
It is, yes it is,
He said, "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl)
"What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl)
"But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea"