Biography
Although Golden Earring first attracted notice in the United States through their hard rock output, the Dutch ensemble has ranked as the country’s leading homegrown act since the mid-1960s, an era when their sound leaned chiefly toward pop. Guitarist/vocalist George Kooymans and bassist/vocalist Rinus Gerritsen, still students at the time, formed the group in 1961; after several years and multiple lineup adjustments, they scored their initial Dutch success with the single “Please Go.” In 1968 they reached the summit of the Dutch charts for the first of numerous occasions via “Dong-Dong-Di-Ki-Di-Gi-Dong,” a track that expanded their audience across Europe. By 1969 the configuration had settled around lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Barry Hay together with drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk. The musicians explored varying approaches for several years before committing to a direct hard-rock approach reminiscent of the Who, who later asked them to support their 1972 European dates. Golden Earring joined the Who’s Track label, which issued the Dutch-singles collection Hearing Earring and thereby aided the band’s entry into the British market. The 1974 album Moontan yielded the single “Radar Love,” which topped the Dutch chart, reached the U.K. Top Ten, and climbed to number 13 in the United States.
An American tour supporting the Doobie Brothers and Santana followed, yet the absence of a comparable hit kept their Stateside profile brief, even as they stayed among Europe’s leading attractions through the remainder of the 1970s. A short-lived U.S. resurgence arrived in 1982 with the album Cut and its Top Ten single “Twilight Zone,” but once more Golden Earring could not maintain momentum and receded from the American marketplace. “Radar Love” itself resurfaced in U.S. consciousness when pop-metal band White Lion recorded a version in 1989. The group nevertheless continued to record and perform across subsequent decades, remaining a live attraction in the Netherlands and other European territories well into the new millennium. Although they have not visited North America since the mid-1980s, Golden Earring tracked their 2003 release Millbrook USA in Millbrook, New York, at the studio of Frank Carillo, whose duo project with George Kooymans, On Location, appeared in April 2010. Individual members have also issued solo recordings in Europe. Golden Earring disbanded in 2021 after Kooymans disclosed his diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
An American tour supporting the Doobie Brothers and Santana followed, yet the absence of a comparable hit kept their Stateside profile brief, even as they stayed among Europe’s leading attractions through the remainder of the 1970s. A short-lived U.S. resurgence arrived in 1982 with the album Cut and its Top Ten single “Twilight Zone,” but once more Golden Earring could not maintain momentum and receded from the American marketplace. “Radar Love” itself resurfaced in U.S. consciousness when pop-metal band White Lion recorded a version in 1989. The group nevertheless continued to record and perform across subsequent decades, remaining a live attraction in the Netherlands and other European territories well into the new millennium. Although they have not visited North America since the mid-1980s, Golden Earring tracked their 2003 release Millbrook USA in Millbrook, New York, at the studio of Frank Carillo, whose duo project with George Kooymans, On Location, appeared in April 2010. Individual members have also issued solo recordings in Europe. Golden Earring disbanded in 2021 after Kooymans disclosed his diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Albums
