Golden Earring kaarten

Over Golden Earring

Golden Earring is the best known and internationally most succesful rock band to come out of the Netherlands.

Founded in 1961, Golden Earring has been active for 50 years non-stop. The current line-up has been together since 1970, which makes Golden Earring the world's longest surviving rock band, having been formed a year before The Rolling Stones.

In 1961 George Kooymans (age 13) and his neighbour Rinus Gerritsen formed The Tornados in their home town of The Hague. The band's first line-up mainly played The Shadows covers and other instrumental tunes.

In 1963, as the band found out that there already was a British band called The Tornados, they decided to change their name into The Golden Earrings (after a Peggy Lee song). Under the Golden Earrings moniker the band recorded four albums and had twelve hit singles in the Netherlands between 1965 and 1969, of which ten reached the Dutch Top 10.

The band's international career modestly started to take off in 1969, the year of their psychedelic Eight Miles High album, their first tour of the U.S. and also the year in which the band name was slightly changed into Golden Earring.

A year later, in 1970, a new dummer was recruited. The new line-up was the line-up that is still active today: Barry Hay (lead vocals/guitar/flute), George Kooymans (guitar/vocals), Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums) and Rinus Gerritsen (bass/harmonica/keyboards).

1970 saw a dramatic shift in Golden Earring's musical style. After the melodic, often Beatle-esque sixties beat of The Golden Earrings and a brief phase of psychedelic and hippie rock, Back Home marked the birth of Golden Earring's trademark heavy, riff-based rock with catchy, sometimes remarkably 'poppy' hooks. Back Home hit #1 in the Dutch charts and was also a hit in Germany and several other European nations.

It marked the start of a decade of domestic and international glory. Between 1966 and 1976 seventeen consecutive Earring singles rocketed into the Dutch Top 10, while their international popularity increased. Between 1969 and 1985 Golden Earring toured the U.S. thirteen times, building a considerable North American fanbase. Their 1973 hit single Radar Love was their breakthrough smash hit worldwide: #13 in the U.S., #5 in Britain, #8 in Australia, #10 in Canada, #5 in Germany, #6 in Belgium, #1 in Spain and also #1 in (last but not least) Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Radar Love still is a 'car song' and classic rock radio anthem of global fame.

The band failed to achieve similar chart success in the years after Radar Love and was forgotten by many. In 1982, however, Twilight Zone was an even bigger hit in the U.S. than Radar Love: #5 in the U.S. (#1 in the Netherlands), thanks to heavy MTV rotation of the video. The song did not become as much of an all-time worldwide classic as Radar Love.

In their native Netherlands the band did manage to extend their creative and commercial peak, this time: When the Lady Smiles repeated the success of Twilight Zone. The single also hit #3 in Canada, but was a failure in the U.S. as MTV and even radio stations banned the track due to the controversial video by director Dick Maas, in which the rape of a nun was suggested.

Ironically, given its lack of U.S. success, the song was used by Hillary Clinton during the early stages of her 2008 presidential campaign (her husband had used Radar Love for his campaign, in 1992).

After 1985 things rapidly went downhill for Golden Earring internationally (they would not tour the U.S. again), but in the Netherlands the band discovered a new gold mine in 1992: acoustic concerts in theatres, the concept of MTV Unplugged. The band's acoustic live album The Naked Truth rather surprisingly developed into their biggest selling album in Holland (although their by far most succesful album internationally remains 1973's Moontan, which sold well over a million copies outside of the Netherlands and was certified 'gold' in the U.S.).

Golden Earring are still recording studio albums and still do dozens of live shows each year (electric as well as unplugged), almost exclusively in the Netherlands, although there are still occasional live appearances in Belgium and Germany. 2009 saw Golden Earring's long overdue return to the United Kingdom: their sold out shows in Ipswich and London's Shepherd's Bush were their first live appearances in England since 1978.

In 2011 the band recorded their first album of new material since 2003's Millbrook U.S.A.. It is set for release in early 2012.

Studio albums

Just Earrings (1965, as The Golden Earrings)
Winter Harvest (1967, as The Golden Earrings)
Miracle Mirror (1968, as The Golden Earrings)
On the Double (1969, as The Golden Earrings)
Eight Miles High (1969)
Golden Earring (1970, a.k.a. 'Wall Of Dolls')
Seven Tears (1971)
Together (1972)
Moontan (1973)
Switch (1975)
To the Hilt (1976)
Contraband (1976, U.S. title: 'Mad Love')
Grab It For A Second (1978)
No Promises... No Debts (1979)
Prisoner Of The Night (1980)
Cut (1982)
N.E.W.S. (1984)
The Hole (1986)
Keeper of the Flame (1989)
Bloody Buccaneers (1991)
Face It (1994)
Love Sweat (1995, covers album)
Paradise in Distress (1999)
Millbrook U.S.A. (2003)

Live albums
Live (1977)
2nd Live (1981)
Something Heavy Going Down (1984, includes one studio track)
The Naked Truth (1992, acoustic)
Naked II (1997, acoustic)
Last Blast of the Century (2000)
Naked III (2005, acoustic)
Live In Ahoy 2006 (2006, live DVD + CD set)

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