Is Barry Manilow's Record “Mandy” About A Dog? by Alexis Andrews - November 23, 2008 Barry Manilow So I was watching the 1998 romantic teenage comedy, Can’t Hardly Wait – a movie about high school students gathering for one big graduation party. Ethan Embry’s character is in a phone booth trying to get hold of Barry Manilow. He is informed that Mandy – which he regards as a kind of epiphany, decisively influential in his desperate attempts to date Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character – was actually a song written about a dog. Really? A dog? I had to look that up. Surely, a song as classic, sweet, and romantic as Mandy wouldn’t have anything to do with canines. After much research, I learned that this bit about the record allegedly being inspired by a dog turns out to be a kind of urban myth. This hit song was originally written by songwriter and performer Scott English under the title “Brandy”. Pianist Richard Kerr, meanwhile, composed the music. One day, English was woken by a phone call from a reporter, wanting to know who "Brandy" was. "I would have said anything to get rid of him," recalled English, "So I spat out the first thing that came to mind: ‘It was about a dog like Lassie and I had sent her away - now you go away!' And I hung up on him." English’s version was released in 1971, and it reached as high as #12 on the UK singles charts in early 1972, but it really is the version of Barry Manilow which has come to be known all the world over. From “Brandy”, Manilow changed the song’s title to “Mandy” so as not to be confused with another hit pop single at the time: “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” by the band Looking Glass. However, it was said that he originally wasn’t very enthusiastic about covering the song, since he had not written it. But record producer Clive Davis insisted that he did. The rest, as they say, is history. As opposed to the original up-tempo version recorded by English, Barry Manilow opted to sing “Mandy” as a pop ballad. It was then released officially in 1974 as a 7” vinyl record under Davis’ Arista Records – appearing on the album, Barry Manilow II – and achieved phenomenal success. “Mandy” was Barry Manilow’s first ever number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary Charts, as well as his first gold single. Richard Kerr, music composer for “Mandy”, then collaborated with Will Jennings to compose two more hit songs for Manilow, namely “Looks Like We Made It” and “Somewhere in the Night”. But all this was only the beginning of a string of hit songs for Manilow, whose feat of having five albums simultaneously on the best-selling charts is equalled only by Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis. He has also gone on to achieve sales of more than 76 million records worldwide, and until now is performing hundreds of sold-out shows in which he is also featured as producer, composer, and arranger. “Mandy” has been covered by many notable artists and musicians since English and Manilow’s respective releases. Later versions include that of Andy Williams, Richard Clayderman, Johnny Mathis, Westlife, Raymond Quinn, and Donny Osmond. The song has also been featured in the television series Angel and an episode of Family Guy titled “Back to the Woods”. Mandy was also parodied in the hit cartoon show The Simpsons, when Homer felt torn between his wife Margie and an attractive new co-worker named Mindy.  Subscribe to Latest Articles

1 Response

Hissyspit November 29, 2008 4:34 AM I suppose the success of another ballad around that same time, "Shannon" by Henry Gross, about Beach Boy Carl Wilson's missing dog, may have contributed to the myth.

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