"Mandy", originally titled "Brandy", is a song jointly written and composed by Scott English and Richard Kerr.

"Brandy" was a hit in 1971 for Scott English in the UK and in 1972 for Bunny Walters in New Zealand but achieved greater success when covered in 1974 by Barry Manilow in the US with the title changed to "Mandy" to avoid confusion with Looking Glass's "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)." His version reached the top of the US Hot 100 Singles Chart. Later on, it was recorded by many other artists. Irish boyband Westlife had a UK #1 with their version in 2003.

Under the title "Brandy", the selection's original title, the song charted in 1971 for Scott English, one of its joint authors-composers, whose version of it reached number 12 in the UK Singles Charts. It was also released in the United States, but it was not successful there.

The suggestion that Scott English wrote the song about a favorite dog is apparently an urban legend. English has said that a reporter called him early one morning asking who "Brandy" was, and an irritated English made up the "dog" story to get the reporter off his back.

Barry Manilow (born June 17, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter and producer. He is best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana (At the Copa)."

In 1978, five of his albums were on the best-selling charts simultaneously, a feat equalled only by Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Mathis. He has recorded a string of Billboard hit singles and multi-platinum albums that have resulted in his being named Radio & Records number one Adult Contemporary artist and winning three straight American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. Between 1974 - 1983 Manilow had three number 1 singles and 25 that reached the top 40. Several well-known entertainers have praised Manilow, including Sinatra, who was quoted in the 1970s saying, "He's next." In 1988, Bob Dylan stopped Manilow at a party, hugged him and said, "Don't stop what you're doing, man. We're all inspired by you."

As well as producing and arranging albums for other artists, including Bette Midler and Dionne Warwick, Manilow has written songs for musicals, films, and commercials. From February 2005 to December 30, 2009, he was the headliner at the Las Vegas Hilton, performing hundreds of shows before ending his relationship with the hotel. From March 2010, he has headlined at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. He has sold more than 80 million records worldwide.

Amanda Leigh "Mandy" Moore (born April 10, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and fashion designer. Moore became famous as a teenager in the late 1990s, after the release of her teen pop albums So Real, I Wanna Be with You, and Mandy Moore. In 2007, she took an adult pop-folk direction with the release of Wild Hope. Her most recent album, Amanda Leigh, was released on May 26, 2009. Moore has sold more than 10 million records worldwide. Moore subsequently branched out into film, starring in 2002's A Walk to Remember and later in other movies, such as Chasing Liberty, Saved! and License to Wed. Most recently Moore provided the voice of Rapunzel in Tangled. In April 2011, she ranked 5th in People's annual Most Beautiful issue.

Moore was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. Her mother, Stacy (née Friedman), is a former news reporter who once worked for the Orlando Sentinel, and her father, Donald "Don" Moore, is a pilot for American Airlines. Moore's father is of Irish and Cherokee descent, and her mother is of half-English and half-Jewish ancestry. Moore, who has an older brother Scott and a younger brother Kyle, grew up in Longwood, Florida, outside of Orlando, where the family moved shortly after her birth because of her father's job as an airline pilot. She was raised Catholic (though she is no longer practicing), and attended Bishop Moore High School, in Orlando, as well as Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs.

Zachary Levi Pugh (born September 29, 1980), better known by his stage name Zachary Levi (pronounced /ˈzækəri ˈliːvaɪ/), is an American actor, director, and singer known for the roles of Kipp Steadman in Less than Perfect, Chuck Bartowski in Chuck, and Flynn Rider in Tangled.

Zachary Levi Pugh was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Darrell and Susy Pugh. He is the middle child between two sisters, Sarah and Shekinah. He is of Welsh ancestry. As a child, his family moved all over the country before making their final move to their new home in Ventura, California, where Levi attended Buena High School for four years. He began acting in theatre at the age of six, performing lead roles in regional productions such as Grease, The Outsiders, Oliver, The Wizard of Oz and Big River at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center.

Levi first appeared in the FX television movie Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie. He played Kipp Steadman on the ABC sitcom Less Than Perfect. He also portrayed a potential boyfriend of Charisma Carpenter's character, Jane, in the ABC Family television movie See Jane Date. Levi was slated to be a lead in an ABC pilot called Three for the 2004/2005 television season. It was written by Andrew Reich & Ted Cohen, and would have costarred James Van Der Beek, Jama Williamson, and Jacob Pitts, but the show was not picked up. Levi financed Kendall Payne's album Grown after she was dropped by her label, Capitol Records.

Mandy Grace Capristo (born March 21, 1990) is a German singer, songwriter, dancer and model. Born in Mannheim,Baden-Württemberg and raised in Bürstadt, Hessen, she was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions in 2001, when she won Kiddy Contest, a reality television singing competition for teens in Austria, with her song “Ich wünsche mir einen Bankomat”. In the mid to late 2000s, Capristo rose rose to fame as a founding member of the girl band Monrose, the result of the fifth season of the German television talent show Popstars. Until their disbandment in 2011, the trio released four studio albums and eleven singles. Together with Monrose she sold more than 1,5 million Singles and Albums.

Following the break-up of Monrose, Capristo launched her solo career as a singer. In 2011, she collaborated with singer Peter Maffay on his Tabaluga musical track “Die Zeit hält nur in Träumen an”. In between recording her first solo album Grace (2012), Capristo participated in the fifth season of Let's Dance. Her first solo single, "The Way I Like It", was released in April 2012.