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Artist
Golden Earring
12+ albums
classic rockrockhard rockdutch70s
about
Golden Earring was a Dutch rock band from The Hague, active from 1961 to 2021. The internationally most succesful rock band to come out of the Netherlands, they had 47 chart hits in their home country. In North America they are best known for their brace of major hits, Radar Love (1973, an American hit in 1974) and Twilight Zone (1982, an American hit in 1983). Formed in 1961, the band was active for 60 years, almost non-stop. They had 56 years of studio output, starting in 1965, until their tragic end on 5 February 2021, when guitarist founding member George Kooymans revealed that he had been diagnosed with the neuro-muscular disease, ALS. The band's core line-up of four was unchanged from 1970 to 2021, although additional musicians had short stints in the band in the 1970s. Golden Earring was always touring, except in 2000 (their only sabbatical year) and the final year of their existence, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 1961 George Kooymans (age 13) and his neighbour Rinus Gerritsen (age 15) formed The Tornado's in the Zuiderpark district of their home town of The Hague. The band's first line-up mainly played The Shadows and The Ventures covers, as well as other instrumental tunes, and played its first gigs at school parties. 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 Ear-rings (after a Peggy Lee song). Their debut single, 1965's Please Go, immediately landed in the Dutc
