One-Hit Wonder: Looking Glass

One-hit wonders sometimes have a different sound on the album and radio than in concert. That is what I found out about Looking Glass.

According to oldies.com, Looking Glass members were led by vocalist and guitarist Elliot Lurie, Larry Gonsky on keyboards, Pieter Swevel (died in 1990) on bass and drummer Jefferey Grob.

Looking Glass were a New Jersey quartet that was popular on the East Coast bar circuit and were able to refine their act to audition and record an album. In 1972 that success happened with "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" topping the charts.

The group recordings were soft rock, but their live concerts were guitar heavy and met with little support. Looking Glass follow-up "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne" had little success.

From lookingglassbrandy.com, a 2002 article written by Lisa Rose was a follow-up story about "Brandy Turns 30."

It turns out "Brandy" just scratched the surface. Looking Glass released three rock albums, renamed the group Starz and toured with ZZTop, Foghart and Aerosmith.

No surprise, but "Brandy" is pure fiction. Lurie wrote the song as he was imaging a girl waiting for her sailor to return from sea after a tour in California. The namesake in the song is a girl from his high school, Randye, and just a "B" was added to her name.

After the group went their separate ways:

• Elliot Lurie went to Hollywood and was successful writing scores for movies such as Last of the Mohicans, Alien 3, Stuart Little and more.
• Larry Gonsky went on to be a choral director.
• Jeff Grob went to New Jersey to be a landscape architect, along with performing in clubs as singer and songwriter.