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
Still Got The Keys To My First Cadillac
Golden Earring Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I swear to my heart I still got the key
Two or three more are just the same
There's only one that opens all doors for me
Somewhere in the past a long time ago
I was pressin' my nose to a cold window
She was lookin' at me all ready to please
My Cadillac, my rocket-ship on four wheels
Promisin' me love unconditionally
Wherever I'd go she'd be with me
I had the blood, she had the gasoline
I had the blood, she had the gasoline
Yeah, we hit the road as if there'd ever been
Anything like this kinda free
She had the tunes on her radio
She taught me everything I needed to know
That car was beautiful, that car had soul
Whenever I wanted she was ready to roll
She'd never tire, felt like Jimmy Dean
On our way to infinity
All the way to infinity
Time keeps movin', shatterin', assumin' that it won't come back
Never come back
The memory of drivin' like the sun of the moon
And a maniac in the future and the past
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
My Cadillac, my rocket-ship on four wheels
Promisin' me love unconditionally
We were on the road, we were chasin' dreams
I had the blood, she had the gasoline
I had the blood, she had the gasoline
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
The opening lines of Golden Earring's "Still Got The Keys To My First Cadillac" refer to the singer's ownership of a keychain that holds a key to his first Cadillac. He emphasizes the importance of the key that unlocks all doors, emphasizing its sentimental value despite the existence of other similar keys on his keychain. The song speaks to the unbreakable bond between driver and car, and how the freedom and sense of adventure that came with owning his first Cadillac is something the singer still holds dear today.
The singer reflects on a past memory when he was looking longingly in a shop window, and there he met a girl who was looking at him with a sparkle in her eye. The car acted as the glue that kept them together and created a bond between them. The Cadillac became a symbol of freedom for the singer, as he and the car travelled the open road together, resulting in an experience that taught the singer many valuable lessons he still remembers to this day.
The chorus of the song is a powerful statement that encapsulates the song's emotions, an expression of the singer's nostalgia for his first Cadillac: "Still got the keys to my first Cadillac." It is a memory he can never forget, and the song serves as a heartfelt tribute to both a car and the memories it provides.
Line by Line Meaning
Inside my pocket on a one foot chain
I still have the key to my first Cadillac with me on a chain in my pocket.
I swear to my heart I still got the key
I can assure you that I still have the key to my first Cadillac.
Two or three more are just the same
I have a few other keys that look similar to this one.
There's only one that opens all doors for me
Out of all the keys I have, only this one can unlock all the doors of my first Cadillac.
Somewhere in the past a long time ago
This story takes place in the distant past.
I was pressin' my nose to a cold window
I was standing outside in the cold looking into a window.
She was lookin' at me all ready to please
The Cadillac was shining and looking new, ready to take me on an adventure.
Shining so pretty like a centerfold
The car was so beautiful and shiny, it looked like it belonged in a magazine centerfold.
My Cadillac, my rocket-ship on four wheels
To me, my Cadillac was like a rocket ship on wheels, powerful and exciting.
Promisin' me love unconditionally
The car meant a lot to me and I knew I could always count on it.
Wherever I'd go she'd be with me
I could take the car anywhere with me and it would never let me down.
I had the blood, she had the gasoline
I provided the passion and excitement, while the car provided the power and fuel to make it happen.
Yeah, we hit the road as if there'd ever been
We drove off as if there was never anything else that mattered except us and the open road.
Anything like this kinda free
We felt like nothing could stop us and we were completely free on the road.
She had the tunes on her radio
The car had a great sound system and we enjoyed listening to music while driving.
She taught me everything I needed to know
The car taught me about the joy of driving and exploring the world.
That car was beautiful, that car had soul
The car was not just a machine, it had a personality and character that made it special.
Whenever I wanted she was ready to roll
I could take the car out on a drive anytime I wanted and it was always ready to go.
She'd never tire, felt like Jimmy Dean
The car was always full of energy, like the character Jimmy Dean in the movie 'Rebel Without a Cause.'
On our way to infinity
We didn't know where the road would take us, but we were excited to find out and explore everything along the way.
Time keeps movin', shatterin', assumin' that it won't come back
As time goes on, things change and are destroyed, and we assume that we can never go back to the way things used to be.
Never come back
We can never relive the past or go back to how things were before.
The memory of drivin' like the sun of the moon
The memory of driving in the car is as bright and vivid as the sun or the moon in the sky.
And a maniac in the future and the past
I may seem crazy or nostalgic when I talk about the car in the future or the past.
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
Even though the car may be gone, I still have the key and the memories of it with me always.
We were on the road, we were chasin' dreams
When we drove, we were on a journey to pursue our dreams and discover new things.
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
The car may be gone, but I still cling to the memories and the key as a symbol of all that it represented to me.
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
The key is a reminder of the adventure and excitement that I felt when I first got the car and took it out on the open road.
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
Even though the car is gone, I will always remember the memories and the joy that it brought to my life.
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
The key is precious to me because it represents a time in my life when I felt alive, free, and invincible with the car as my companion.
Still got the keys to my first Cadillac
The key is a symbol of the bond that I shared with the car and the memories that I cherish.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: BARRY HAY, GEORGE KOOYMANS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@marjolein1980
Wowwwww..., Golden Earring better then ever !!! Eindelijk een nieuwe single en album !!! 9 jaar geduld wordt rijkelijk beloond :-)
@TheJetfighter666
Always among the best bands ever.
@RaymondvanSchayk
Zeker vet Intro Henk, en weer de Earring zoals ze zijn, lekker rockend. Lijkt me ook een vet nummer om te spelen, en om het live te horen.
@Winanda1234
Gaaf nummer. De enige echte rockband van Nederland.
@thefrisquette
Very very GOOD!Golden Earring are"still alive and well",one of the three oldest rock band(with the Stones and Status Quo!!)
@BoekanierHenk
Jazeker om lekker te spelen! Het nummer staat volgende week in Spijkenisse (21 april) al op onze setlijst! Heeeerlijk!!
@RaymondvanSchayk
Een heel gaaf nummer met zeker een vet Intro. Echt weer Back to Basic Earring.
@RaymondvanSchayk
Zeker een topplaat. Hoop dit nummer snel live te horen. Ik zie de heren 2 Juni weer in Strijen, hopelijk spelen ze dan het nummer.
@cornelissejc
Fantastische plaat. Eindelijk weer de Erring in de top 100. Nummer 66 nieuw. Goede stevige rock uit het Haagje. Nu de cd nog en we gaan d'r weer voor. cornj@live.nl
@thies1983
Lekker, echt weer zo'n Earring stijlbloempje!