Looking Glass (band)
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Looking Glass was an American rock band from the 1970s.
Band history
Looking Glass was founded in the late 1960s as a student band by Elliot Lurie, Lawrence Gonsky and Pieter Sweval in New Brunswick , New Jersey. After a brief split after graduating from college, they got back together, with Sweval still bringing drummer Jeffrey Grob, and they toured New Jersey. They also played their own pieces, which were mainly written by Lurie. They were soon discovered and signed by Clive Davis of Columbia Records .
In 1972 they recorded the self-written song Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) . This became a big hit, reaching number 1 on the US Billboard charts and selling over a million times. The song is about the waitress in a harbor bar who falls in love with a sailor. However, their love remains unfulfilled because "his love, his life and his bride is the sea".
However, the melodic-melancholy pop song was not exactly typical for Looking Glass, who mainly preferred Southern rock and somewhat heavier sounds. The band noticed this on their subsequent debut album, which stayed in the "Top LPs & Tapes" (now Billboard 200 ) for 16 weeks , but did not go beyond number 113. But above all, they left a lot of disappointed concert-goers who expected more songs à la Brandy . So there were no further single successes. Only with Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne did they succeed in picking up the sound of their big hit, and a year and a half later they had one more Top 40 hit.
After Looking Glass
Looking Glass ended in 1974. Elliot Lurie attempted a solo career in vain, but has worked as a music supervisor for many well-known films such as Jumpin 'Jack Flash , Alien 3 , Stuart Little and I Spy since the mid-1980s .
After the separation, Pieter Sweval and Jeff Grob founded the heavy metal band Starz , which had a few other smaller chart hits to record. But by the end of the 1970s this band broke up again. In 1979 he was a founding member of the band Skatt Bros, founded by Sean Delaney . Sweval died of cancer in 1990. Lurie formed the band again in 2003 with other members, but without much success.
Others
In early 1972 Scott English also had a minor hit with a self-written song called Brandy . When Barry Manilow later re-recorded this track, it was renamed so that it would not be confused with the Looking Glass hit. With his Mandy he then also had a US number 1 hit.
Almost three decades after Looking Glass, the Red Hot Chili Peppers added the song Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) to their live repertoire. It can be heard on the live recording of the concert in Hyde Park . It is the only known cover version of the hit.
Members
- Elliot Lurie (born August 19, 1948 in Brooklyn, New York), singer, guitarist, songwriter
- Pieter Sweval (born April 13, 1948 in Toms River, New Jersey - † January 23, 1990), bassist
- Larry Gonsky (born October 20, 1949 in Paterson, New Jersey), piano
- Jeffrey Grob (born December 6, 1950), drummer, later called himself Joe X. Dube
Discography
Albums
- 1972: Looking Glass
- 1973: Subway Serenade
Singles
- 1972: Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)
- 1972: Golden Rainbow
- 1973: Rainbow Man
- 1973: Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne
swell
- ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
- ↑ Top Pop Singles 1955-2006 by Joel Whitburn , Record Research 2007, ISBN 978-0-89820-172-7 .
- ↑ Music Sales Awards: US
Web links
- allmusic.com (engl.)