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The world's greatest songs. By the people who made them.
THIS WEEK: 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...