Formed in 1961, the band was active for 60 years, almost non-stop. They had 56 years of studio output, starting in 1965, which made them the world's longest surviving rock band, formed a year before The Rolling Stones, 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 extra 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 Netherlands. 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). The band now performed around The Hague, soon had a devoted local following and landed a record deal with Polydor. Their début single, 1965's Please Go, immediately landed in the Dutch Top 10.
Under the Golden Earrings moniker the band eventually recorded four albums and had twelve hit singles in the Netherlands between 1965 and 1969, ten of which reached the Dutch Top 10. Several of their records were released internationally in Europe and even North America, although they failed to make an impact there.
One of the band's sixties singles became their first Dutch #1 hit: 1968's somewhat carnavalesque Dong-Dong-Diki-Digi-Dong, although that tune is now frowned upon by the band and generally regarded as inferior to other sixties Earrings gems, such as That Day (1966, the first Dutch pop single to have been recorded in the U.K., at London's Pye Studios), Sound Of The Screaming Day (1966) and the epic Just A Little Bit Of Peace In My Heart (1969).
The band's lead singer during the early Golden Earrings years was Frans Krassenburg. He was replaced by Barry Hay (ex-The Haigs) in 1967. The band's drummer for much of the 1960s was Jaap Eggermont. His successors were Sieb Warner (1969) and, in 1970, Cesar Zuiderwijk (ex-Livin' Blues), Golden Earring's definitive drummer.
The band's international career modestly started to take off in 1969, the year of their psychedelic Eight Miles High album, their first haphazard tour of the United States and also the year in which the band name was slightly changed into The Golden Earring and finally (dropping the article within a year), Golden Earring. On their early U.S. tours, their long, wild cover version of The Byrds' classic Eight Miles High impressed audiences and press alike. Golden Earring's 19-minute album version, as well as the stand-alone 1969 single, Another 45 Miles, were the first Golden Earring recordings to get some North American airplay.
The arrival of drummer, Cesar Zuiderwijk, in 1970, completed what would turn out to be the group's definitive line-up: 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 psychedelia and hippie rock in 1968 and 1969, the single Back Home marked the birth of Golden Earring's trademark heavy, riff-based brand of hard rock with catchy hooks. Back Home hit #1 in the Dutch charts and 'broke' Golden Earring in most of Europe, notably countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France.
This 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, especially after their lengthy 1972 tour of Europe, supporting The Who. Buddy Joe (1972) achieved considerable chart success in the German-speaking countries of Europe, but 1973's Radar Love was their breakthrough smash hit worldwide: #13 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, #1 in the U.S. Cashbox chart, #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), to name but a few.
Radar Love remains an enduring 'car classic' and radio anthem of global fame to this day. Between 1969 and 1985 Golden Earring completed ten major tours of North America, building a considerable North American fanbase, as well as five headlining tours of Great Britain in 1973 and 1974 alone. Golden Earring toured as 'special guests' of The Who, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, .38 Special, Rush and many more, whereas bands like Aerosmith, KISS, ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd opened for Golden Earring. The album that spawned Radar Love, 1973's Moontan, was certified 'Gold' by North America's RIAA in 1974 and sold millions of copies worldwide.
The band failed to achieve similar chart success in the years after Radar Love: the progressive Switch (1975) and To The Hilt (1976) charted in Billboard's album charts, but yielded no major U.S. hits. The singles were clearly not what North American audiences wanted from the 'Radar Love guys'.
Golden Earring was forgotten by many outside of The Netherland and by 1980 even Dutch audiences started to lose interest: albums such as No Promises, No Debts (1979) and Prisoner Of The Night (1980) were commercial flops, leading to the band's decision (in 1981) to record a 'final LP and then call it quits.
The lead single from 1982's 'farewell album', Cut, a Kooymans-penned tune called Twilight Zone, surprisingly became an even bigger hit in the U.S. than Radar Love: #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks, thanks to heavy MTV rotation of the Dick Maas-directed video. The song (#1 in The Netherlands) revived Golden Earring's stateside career overnight. The Cut LP was certified 'gold' in Canada, with Twilight Zone hitting #3 in the Canadian charts.
In their native Netherlands the band did manage to extend their creative and commercial peak this time: the single When The Lady Smiles and the album N.E.W.S. ('NorthEastWestSouth'), both released in 1984, repeated the success of Twilight Zone and Cut. 'Lady' peaked at #3 in Canada, but fared disappointingly in the U.S. as MTV and even radio stations banned the track because of its controversial video, once again directed by Dick Maas, in which the rape of a nun was suggested.
After 1985 things rapidly went downhill for Golden Earring internationally (they would not tour the U.S. again), but - after a creative and financial crisis that lasted throughout the second half of the 1980s - the band wrote one of their most enduring Dutch hits in 1991 (the power-ballad, Going To The Run, which fared partially well in Russia) and discovered a new gold mine in their home country a year later: acoustic concerts in theatres, the concept of MTV Unplugged.
To everybody's surprise, the band's acoustic live album, The Naked Truth, slowly became their all-time biggest selling album in The Netherlands. Its sequels, Naked II (1997) and Naked III (2005) also went platinum at least once in The Netherlands.
Golden Earring's by far most succesful album internationally remains 1973's Moontan, which sold well over 3.5 million copies outside of The Netherlands and was certified 'gold' in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom (and platinum in the U.S. in later years).
Golden Earring released 25 studio albums, 9 live albums and countless succesful compilations. Almost all of these records were certified gold, often platinum, in The Netherlands. More than anything else, though, the band remained a live force of legendary status in their home country and beyond. They toured throughout each year until the very end, 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 Empire 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.: Tits 'n Ass - studio album #25 for the Dutch legends - was released on 11 May 2012 on Universal Music and hit #1 in the Dutch album charts one week after its release to become Golden Earring's 8th #1 album in their home country. Certified 'gold' in The Netherlands, the album was generally believed to be Golden Earring's final studio outing, but December 2015 saw the release of a five-track mini album entitled The Hague, released more than fifty years after their début single and just before the band's sold out 'Five Zero' anniversary concert at Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome in front of a 17,000-strong crowd. 2019 saw the release of a stand-alone single, Say When: Golden Earring's final studio recording.
Nobody was aware of it at the time, but the band's 16 November 2019 performance at the Rotterdam Ahoy would turn out to be their final concert. After a year of Covid-19 lockdowns, guitarist George Kooymans announced his ALS diagnosis on 5 February 2021, the disease rendering him unfit to perform. Within hours, the band admitted that carrying on without Kooymans was unthinkable. In the words of lead singer, Barry Hay: "This is the end of the line for the band. It's a death blow. We always said: we'll keep going until the first one of us goes down. I never expected it to be George."
The band's final performance was released as a live CD and DVD in April 2022, named after Barry Hay's final words at the end of countless Golden Earring shows: You Know We Love You!.
Studio albums (released as Golden Earring, unless noted otherwise)
Just Ear-rings (1965, as The Golden Earrings or The Golden Ear-rings)
Winter-Harvest (1967, as Golden Earrings, sometimes spelled as Winter Harvest)
Miracle Mirror (1968, as Golden Earrings)
On The Double (1969, as Golden Earrings)
Eight Miles High (1969, as The Golden Earring)
Golden Earring (1970, colloquially known as '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, spelled as No Promises, No Debts on most online platforms)
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)
Tits 'n Ass (2012)
The Hague (EP, 2015)
Live albums
Live (1977)
2nd Live (1981)
Something Heavy Going Down (1984, includes one new studio track)
The Naked Truth (1992, acoustic)
Naked II (1997, acoustic)
Last Blast Of The Century (2000)
Naked III (2005, acoustic, incorrectly listed as Naked Truth III on some streaming platforms)
Live In Ahoy 2006 (2006, live DVD + CD set)
You Know We Love You! (2022, live DVD + CD set)
Additional information:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Earring
Official website: https://www.golden-earring.nl
Just a Little Bit of Peace in My Heart
Golden Earring Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Oh believe me it's not true
And there ain't no mixture
That will give you back your youth
No mystic machine that makes the sand turn to gold
Like there ain't no magic word
That holds you back from getting old
And I break it in my hands
Like you broke my heart
Oh I still can't understand
No mysterious mixture
Can heal the wound you've made
Only time will bring peace to me
And now I just hate
Oh I'll break up and I give it all up
No more lies, no more rainbow treasures
No more fairy tales, no more games for me
It's my life, my life, a pleasure
There's just a little bit of peace in my heart
There's just a little bit of happiness I'll part
There's just a little bit of peace in my heart
There's just a little bit of happiness I'll part
I catch a branch
And I break it in my hands
Like you broke my heart
Oh I still can't understand
No mysterious mixture
Can heal the wound you've made
Only time will bring peace to me
And now I just hate
Oh I'll break up and I give it all up
No more lies, no more rainbow treasures
No more fairy tales, no more games for me
It's my life, my life, a pleasure
There's just a little bit of peace in my heart
There's just a little bit of happiness I'll part
There's just a little bit of peace in my heart
There's just a little bit of happiness I'll part
The time rolls by, the days go by
When will I learn to stop wondering why
Despairing I'm going down on my knees
I'm begging, begging, begging, oh please
There's just a little bit of peace in my heart
There's just a little bit of happiness I'll part
There's just a little bit of peace in my heart
There's just a little bit of happiness I'll part
The song "Just A Little Bit Of Peace In My Heart" by Golden Earring is a reflective song about the end of a romantic relationship. The opening lines "The rainbow hides no treasure, Oh believe me it's not true" suggests that there is no hope in finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, despite what some fairy tales may have us believe. This sets up the central theme of the song - the idea that no mystical object, potion or words can fix the pain and ache caused by a broken heart.
The singer acknowledges the hurt he has experienced by likening it to the physical act of breaking a branch in his hands. He recognizes that there is no magical elixir or medicine that can heal the wounds caused by rejection and sorrow. The chorus repeats the line, "There's just a little bit of peace in my heart, there's just a little bit of happiness I'll part", which shows that although he's moving on and finding a bit of peace, there is still some sadness that lingers.
The last verse of the song expresses a call for help, as the singer seems to be at the end of his rope, "When will I learn to stop wondering why, despairing I'm going down on my knees, I'm begging, begging, begging, oh please". This verse suggests that the singer has tried everything to move on, but is still grappling with the pain caused by the breakup.
Overall, "Just A Little Bit Of Peace In My Heart" captures the raw emotions of dealing with heartbreak and the process of moving on. It's a poignant reminder that healing takes time and that there's no magic cure for the pain of love lost.
Line by Line Meaning
The rainbow hides no treasure
Contrary to popular belief, rainbows do not offer hidden treasures.
Oh believe me it's not true
The singer is confident in their statement that there is no treasure to be found in a rainbow.
And there ain't no mixture
There does not exist any concoction or substance.
That will give you back your youth
There is no magical potion that can restore one's youthful vigor.
No mystic machine that makes the sand turn to gold
There is no device that can transform ordinary sand into gold through mystical means.
Like there ain't no magic word
Similarly, there is no word that possesses magical powers.
That holds you back from getting old
No matter what, aging is an inevitable process that cannot be prevented by a single word or action.
I catch a branch
The artist has physically taken hold of a branch.
And I break it in my hands
The branch has been snapped in two by the artist.
Like you broke my heart
The powerlessness and frustration that the artist feels is reflected by their actions toward the branch, which represent the damage that has been done to them emotionally.
Oh I still can't understand
The singer is unable to comprehend the pain that they are experiencing and its source.
No mysterious mixture
Once again, there is no magical substance or combination of elements.
Can heal the wound you've made
The emotional wound inflicted by the person who broke the singer's heart cannot be mended by any sort of remedy.
Only time will bring peace to me
The singer recognizes that the passage of time is what will eventually allow them to find inner peace and healing.
And now I just hate
At this point, the singer is overwhelmed by a sense of hatred and anger caused by their pain.
Oh I'll break up and I give it all up
The artist has reached a point of desperation where they feel they need to let go of everything.
No more lies, no more rainbow treasures
The artist is done with falsehoods and disillusionment.
No more fairy tales, no more games for me
They are also finished with the idea of things being all sunshine and rainbows.
It's my life, my life, a pleasure
The singer is now taking control of their own life and finding joy in their own agency.
The time rolls by, the days go by
Time keeps passing as its does, regardless of the hardships experienced.
When will I learn to stop wondering why
At this point, the artist questions whether or not they'll ever fully grasp the suffering that they're going through.
Despairing I'm going down on my knees
The pain that they're dealing with is leaving them hopeless and feeling as if they have nothing left to do but give up.
I'm begging, begging, begging, oh please
Despite the hopelessness and despair, there's still a kernel of pleading and desire within the singer for things to get better.
There's just a little bit of peace in my heart
In the end, the artist has found a bit of inner peace amidst their pain.
There's just a little bit of happiness I'll part
Even though the singer has found peace, their pain has taken away some of their happiness which they can't regain.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@reinpeelen5690
Just A Little Bit Of Peace In My Heart Lyrics
The rainbow hides no treasure
Oh believe me it's not true
And there ain't no mixture
That will give you back your youth
No mystic machine that makes the sand turn to gold
Like there ain't no magic word
That holds you back from getting old
I catch a branch
And I break it in my hands
Like you broke my heart
Oh I still can't understand
No mysterious mixture
Can heal the wound you've made
Only time will bring peace to me and
Now I just hate
Oh I'll break up and I give it all up
No more lies, no more rainbow treasures
No more fairytales, no more games for me
It's my life, my life, a pleasure
There's just a little bit of peace in my heart 2x
There's just a little bit of happiness I'll part 2x
I catch a branch
And I break it in my hands
Like you broke my heart
Oh I still can't understand
No mysterious mixture
Can heal the wound you've made
Only time will bring peace to me
And now I just hate
Oh I'll break up and I give it all up
No more lies, no more rainbow treasures
No more fairytales, no more games for me
It's my life, my life, a pleasure
There's just a little bit of peace in my heart 2x
There's just a little bit of happiness I'll part 2x...........
The time rolls by, the days go by
When will I learn to stop wondering why
Despairing I'm going down on my knees
I'm begging, begging, begging, oh please
There's just a little bit of peace in my heart
There's just a little bit of happiness I'll par
@lucasmeijer5012
DE beste band van Nederland! We wensen de familie van George Kooymans veel sterkte!
@ddoeser5830
Woorden Tekort...Lieve Groetjes aan iederéén van de muziek ❤🇳🇱🙏👋Zaterdag 23 Juli Jaar 2022.Tijd 01:16 Nacht .🎸
@geertstappaerts5557
heeft tezamen met Kayak de innovatie in de Nederlandse popmuziek gebracht. 2 steengoeie groepen.
@geertstappaerts5557
en ook met earth & fire, en focus, natuurlijk
@anne-marievanes2607
Heel veel sterkte George, en familie en de bandleden. Jullie laten onuitwisbare mooie muziek achter dat altijd gedraaid zal blijven worden👍🤞👏🙏🏻
@ferdinandhuizer8631
Misschien wel het beste nummer van de Earring. Die man heeft een geweldige stem. Sterkte.
@MrRichulan
Een van mijn favorieten van de Golden Earring. De studioversie van destijds was ook prachtig met die orkestratie. Deze versie is ook geweldig. De compositie steekt werkelijk prachtig in elkaar. Goede zangers en instrumentalisten.
@michaelgreenfield9090
Wat zing je dit prachtig George ! Geroerd 😥 Sterkte🤛
@woutersiemons426
George ontzettend bedankt voor het oprichten van de golden earring. Geweldige muziek, heerlijke jeugd. En ik blijf genieten en veeeeele met mij.
@tantelien4378
Prachtig nummer. De stemmen zijn harmonisch.