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
One Word
Golden Earring Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Can't be imagination
I worry and I cry for you
Guess I'll have to learn to live with it
A heartache hauntin' me
Feels like electrocution
I'm hurt, you never understood
Who are you, sittin' on your throne
I used to be a slave in your temple
Now you tell me that you're so alone
On the run for your life
One look through the eyes of a stranger
One night in the arms of a fool
One glance down the shaft of a goldmine
Nothin' could be better, nothin' could be better
Do now, do now what you want to do
Tell a lie now, tell the truth
There's gotta be more than a thousand roads to Rome
So follow your footsteps home
One word, makes all a difference in the world
One word
One is being born
Two is what you're going for
Three is the price you pay
Four what you've been lookin' for
And the word is love, love
One look through the eyes of a stranger
One night in the arms of a fool
One glance down the shaft of a goldmine
Nothin' could be better, nothin' could be better
Do now, do now what you want to do
Tell a lie now, tell the truth
There's gotta be more than a thousand roads to Rome
So follow your footsteps home
One look through the eyes of a stranger
One night in the arms of a fool
One glance down the shaft of a goldmine
Nothin' could be better, nothin' could be better
One word, makes all a difference in the world
Make one hell of a difference in the world
One word, one single word
The lyrics to Golden Earring's song One Word are a meditation on the power of language and communication to shape our experiences, perceptions, and relationships with others. The song describes a deep heartache, an emotional pain that the singer cannot escape or control, which seems to stem from a lack of understanding and connection with the person they care about. The singer expresses frustration and confusion over their inability to bridge this gap, and wonders if there is anything they can do to overcome it. They plead for a single word that could make all the difference in the world and heal the distance between them.
The song's chorus repeats the phrase "One look through the eyes of a stranger," "One night in the arms of a fool," and "One glance down the shaft of a goldmine," suggesting that every experience we have, no matter how seemingly insignificant, holds the potential to change us, shape us, and illuminate new paths forward. The song encourages listeners to be daring, to take risks, and to trust that even when we feel lost or alone, there is always the possibility of finding unexpected connections and moments of beauty.
Overall, One Word is a deeply poetic and emotionally raw song that speaks to the human need for connection and understanding. It invites us to consider the power of language, the complexities of interpersonal relationships, and the courage it takes to seek out new experiences and perspectives.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a heartache, come over me
I am feeling heartbroken and sad.
Can't be imagination
This feeling is real and not just in my head.
I worry and I cry for you
I am concerned and upset about you.
Guess I'll have to learn to live with it
I must find a way to cope and move forward.
A heartache hauntin' me
This feeling of heartbreak is constantly present and painful.
Feels like electrocution
The pain is intense and shocking.
I'm hurt, you never understood
You have caused me pain and you never empathized with me.
One word, one word
A single word can make all the difference.
Who are you, sittin' on your throne
You hold power and authority over me.
I used to be a slave in your temple
I was once completely under your control and influence.
Now you tell me that you're so alone
You claim to be isolated and abandoned.
On the run for your life
You are fleeing from something life-threatening.
One look through the eyes of a stranger
Seeing things from a different perspective can be eye-opening.
One night in the arms of a fool
A brief moment of foolishness can have consequences.
One glance down the shaft of a goldmine
A single opportunity can be hugely rewarding.
Nothin' could be better, nothin' could be better
This moment or opportunity is the most perfect of all.
Do now, do now what you want to do
Take action and pursue your desires now.
Tell a lie now, tell the truth
Choose whether to be deceitful or honest.
There's gotta be more than a thousand roads to Rome
There are countless paths to take in life.
So follow your footsteps home
Return to where you belong and find your way.
One is being born
The beginning of something new and significant.
Two is what you're going for
The goal or desired outcome you aim for.
Three is the price you pay
There is a cost or sacrifice to achieving your goal.
Four what you've been lookin' for
You have finally found what you've been searching for.
And the word is love, love
The one word that matters the most is love.
Make one hell of a difference in the world
A single action or choice can have a huge impact.
One word, one single word
A single word can hold immense power and significance.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Found For You
For me this remains the best song on this album. Typically an unknown gem from Golden Earring. Could have been a big hit, but there were plenty of unfortunate single choices in Golden Earring's existence.
1
I love it when Barry joins George on some of George's songs. Twilight zone is another example.
Kyntteri
Fun fact: This song gets listed wrongly as "One World" in many listings (Even by YouTube and Spotify) but the back of the album and on disc it's "One word"
They should fix this.
marcho730
Blijft een sterk en tijdloos nummer. Jammer dat ze het nooit live spelen.
Johan van den Bosch
Mooie climaxen in de nummers, veel beter dat op tits'n ass. Kan niet wachten om ze live te horen!