22 November 2003
You probably know all this already, but it was new information to me that Barry Manilow’s ‘Mandy’ was itself a cover version – and the song was originally called ‘Brandy’, not ‘Mandy’. Further intel—let’s just say that the Westlife offering includes an autobiography and leave it there—holds that the brainwave for Westlife to do their own version came from Simon Cowell. However, I’m not buying that. We’ve traipsed over enough Irish number ones together, you and I, to know that an Irish boyband covering a schmaltzy ’70s romantic ballad is a pure Louis Walsh move. And here we are with another Irish boyband schmaltzy ’70s romantic ballad at number one in Ireland and the UK. Louis got game, baby!
‘Mandy’ née ‘Brandy’ is a dreadful song, but at least the Manilow iteration leaves room for campy cabaret kitsch, if that’s how you choose to take your music. Westlife, though, just plough right in with a straight bat, dark suits, and sombre faces. Seasoned Westlife spotters will know a second verse sung by Mark usually spells appalling pseudo-soul singing, but even he dials it down here. Maybe Louis told them Mandy was real: a sickly orphan in a children’s ward, or a missing pet. The patented Westlife climactic key change is here played as catharsis for big emoshuns: fireworks in the video and all. Pass the brandy so I can flambée this record.
