Biography
George Kooymans, guitarist and co-founder of Golden Earring—the longest-lived and most successful rock group the Netherlands ever produced—entered the world on March 11, 1948, in The Hague. With childhood friend and bassist Rinus Gerritsen he launched an instrumental rock & roll combo called the Tornados in 1961. When a British band of identical name scored an international hit with "Telstar," Kooymans and Gerritsen renamed their group the Golden Earrings after a Peggy Lee song. By 1965, now working in a British beat style, they became the first Dutch rock group to release a full-length album, Just Earrings, and scored their initial home-country hit, the Top Ten "Please Go," which the pair had co-written. Three years later they claimed their first Dutch number one with "Dong-Dong-Di-Ki-Di-Gi-Dong," then followed it with another chart-topper, the Kooymans-penned epic "Just a Little Bit of Peace in My Heart." In 1970 Kooymans expanded his songwriting to outside acts by supplying Earth & Fire’s Dutch hit "Seasons." At the same time his principal band shortened its name to Golden Earring and began reshaping its sound to match changing tastes, eventually settling on a straightforward, hard-rocking brand of AOR. Like lead singer Barry Hay, Kooymans made a short solo detour in 1971, recording the Polydor album Jojo. Hay and Kooymans wrote most of Golden Earring’s material together, including the international smash "Radar Love," which broke the band in America in 1974 and remains an album rock radio staple. Although overseas momentum faded quickly, the group kept recording prolifically in the Netherlands. Punk and new wave prompted another reinvention, leading to renewed international attention in 1982 with the album Cut and the U.S. Top Ten hit "Twilight Zone," a Kooymans composition originally planned as a solo release. Golden Earring rejoined a major label in 1990 and issued a run of successful albums and singles that continued into the new millennium. In 1995 Kooymans and Hay discovered female rock singer Anouk and supplied songs for her 1997 debut album, Together Alone, which made her a star in the Netherlands. Golden Earring marked their 40th anniversary in 2001, and Kooymans reached the Dutch charts in 2010 with On Location, recorded as a duo with American singer Frank Carillo.
Albums
