Warner/Chappell representatives have today (November 20) confirmed with Music Week the passing of songwriting great Scott English. Mike Smith, managing director, Warner/Chappell Music UK, said: “Scott English was a gifted songwriter and an incredibly warm person who everyone loved working with. Even when he was ill in hospital, he was still working on new lyrics. Brandy, which went on to be popularised as Mandy, is a timeless pop classic, while his prodigious output included songs for artists ranging from Dionne Warwick to Thin Lizzy. He’ll be truly missed and our thoughts are with his family.”
Back in September, in one of his final interviews, English took part in Music Week's Hitmakers feature. Below, you can read the story (originally published 18/09/18) of the song in his own words...
Before Barry Manilow, Westlife and even Homer Simpson gave the world their own takes on Mandy, there was the stirring original: Brandy. Here, Scott English remembers his ever-changing hit...
There are rumours that Brandy is about a dog, but actually a journalist kept asking and asking me who it was about and I just said that [to get rid of them]. They also asked me ‘Who’s your favourite movie star?’ I said Lassie! So that’s how that got out that I wrote it about a dog.
The song is about me being frightened to leave my wife. I eventually did leave her, but I wrote it beforehand. Everyone loves the ‘You kiss me and stop me from shaking line’. My first wife did kiss me and stop me from shaking. She took me off the streets, you know, and gave me a home. I guess I was ungrateful or bored, I don’t know. I sing about my father in there, too – the ‘man through a window’, that’s my father.
I started to write it at MIDEM and when I got back to London I finished it with Richard Kerr. My piano was being serviced so we searched the whole neighbourhood for one. My landlady found one for us but it was out of tune, so we finished Brandy out of tune! We did a demo with Richard singing but nobody seemed to like it because it wasn’t the kind of song for his voice with the arrangement.
I was upset, but I had a lot of production deals, one with Decca, one with Phonogram and one with RCA. So, I went to Phonogram for a session and I did Brandy and three other songs. I loved what the arrangement did for Brandy, it was just amazing. One of the big executives from Island heard it and said, ‘You’ve got to give [Parlophone] two songs right? Don’t give them Brandy or else I’ll kill you!’ I didn’t, and then Trojan signed me. Three weeks later my record was in the charts.
I always felt it was going to be a hit, but it ended in tragic ways. I did Top Of The Pops, next week I was in Belgium doing TV and the record went up 12 spots. They wanted me to do another week for TOTP but the union wouldn’t allow it because I didn’t do enough gigs. They stopped me from doing it and the next week it died [in the charts]. I was so upset. I thought it was going to be my chance to be Cat Stevens...
I didn’t know Barry Manilow was going to cover it. Years had passed. I went to Chappell and, while I was there, I read a magazine and saw a song in ‘Hits Of The Week’ called Mandy, written by English and Kerr. I thought, ‘I didn’t write a song called Mandy!’ What happened was, when Clive [Davis] took over Bell Records, he found the record on his desk! Screen Gems was plugging it to him, and they released it and I knew nothing of it.
When Barry asked me what I thought of his version I told him, ‘I don’t like it, but the more you buy me houses I’ll love it’ [laughs]. What was stopping me from enjoying it at first? It wasn’t mine. I wanted it to be me, this guy was getting all the glory. It’s my story, and Barry Manilow was singing it. Of course, over time I let that go. Barry brought a real symphonic sense to it.
Again, I didn’t know Westlife were covering it. I was invited to the BMI dinner and that year I wasn’t getting an award, so I felt like a horse’s ass. Like, what am I doing here? I don’t need a free meal! Then I saw Richard Kerr walking towards me smiling and he said, ‘We’ve got the next Westlife record!’ I loved the end of their version. They did something unique to it.
The song is the story of my life. It’s the story of a lot of people’s lives. It shows the vulnerability of a man, and a lot of people are frightened to show that – they don’t think a man should be vulnerable.
I heard it referenced in The Simpsons being replaced with ‘Mindy’ [laughs], but the one thing that’s not been done with it is a soul version. That’s never been done and I would love to see that next.
Writer’s Notes
Publishers Warner/Chappell, Sony/ATV, Morris Music
Writers Scott English, Richard Kerr
Release Date 07.10.74
Record label Bell/Arista/Sony
Total UK sales since 1994 (OCC) Barry Manilow: 134,215 Westlife: 235,082
Music Week would like to extend its condolences to English's family, friends, colleagues and collaborators.
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