Elliot Lurie met Larry Gonsky and Pieter Swerval while all three were students at Rutgers University in New Jersey in the latter part of the 60's. They played hard rock songs at frat parties and worked hard to make money as musicians. They failed and split up joining different bands until they decided they wanted to be signed to a major label and reformed the band naming themselves Looking Glass. Stuck in the rut of playing clubs and shows way out in the boonies, a friend of the band mentioned them to manager Mike Gershman. Gershman set up a gig for the band and had legendary producer Clive Davis in attendance, who was president of CBS records. Out of the songs played that night, one called Brandy caught Davis' attention and he signed the band to Epic Records. Superstar producer Steve Cropper was first up, but the group was not happy with the results and then decided to produce themselves. Sandy Linzer had produced and arranged the rhythm track for Brandy but the group passed on him since his approach was too "bubblegummy". Taking what they learned during the process, they re-recorded the song adding Engineer Bob Liftin to the producer credits and completed it. The song broke out in Washington DC, taking the top position on the charts there. Hitting the Hot100 on June 17, 1972 it became the #1 song in the nation for the week ending August 26, deposing Gilbert O'Sullivan's gossamer lament "Alone Again" which had already spent four weeks at the top. "Alone Again" retook the throne for the following two weeks, spending a total of six weeks at the top. Elliot Lurie recounts the inspiration for the song was his high school girlfriend named Randy. While he was free associating some lyrics he felt that Brandy sang better and changed the lyric. Since "Brandy" was a conscious effort to gain radio play recognition, it was not representative of the band's hard rock repertoire and the American public soon turned their attention to other up and coming bands. The song did not play well live as the band did not have an orchestra touring with them and people hoping to hear more songs with the "Brandy" sound went away disappointed. Looking Glass had a second chart entry, "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne" that went up to #33 and then the group shattered. Lurie left for a solo career working with jazz artist Bob James in 1974 on his "Your Love Song" single, Michael Omartian for "I Think I'm Fallin'" in 1975. Still working with Omartian, he released a disco song "Disco (Where You Gonna Go) that same year. A cover of Hall & Oates "Rich Girl" was recorded for Arista Records in 1976 with Rick Chertoff at the helm followed by his final single ever "Night Ride II" that same year. None of these songs made the charts, but "Disco" caught the attention of disco chart reporter Vince Aletti, who reported on the song, but felt that Lurie's voice lent itself to crooning, which he felt did not fit well with the upbeat tune. Lurie turned his attention to music supervision and ended up producing the soundtrack for "Perfect" a 1985 movie about exercise starring John Travolta and the incredibly sexy Jamie Lee Curtis, who had stepped away from the queen of horror film roles and became a sex symbol. Lurie also oversaw the soundtracks to Alien III in 1992, A Night At The Roxbury in 1998, Riding In Cars With Boys in 2001, I Spy in 2002 and most recently, Spanglish in 2004.