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
When The Lady Smiles
Golden Earring Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You know it drives me wild
Her lips are warm and resourceful
When her fingertips,
Go drawing circles in the night
Then the mood is soft and sensual, hu
And I love it, yeah I love it
It's the answer to all my dreams
It doesn't matter, a glass is fallin',
I hear it shatter,
Maybe it's raining, faster and faster, shadow dancin'
Together oh I, I'm a bettin' on the game of love
Oh oh oh I, I'm bettin' that love is gonna come out
When the walls no longer shout, back at me
And I'm feelin' proud
When the lady smiles,
She holds me in her hand
As a matter of fact,
She could always let me down
But when the lady smiles,
I can't resist her call
As a matter of fact,
I don't resist at all
'Cause I'm walking on clouds
And she is leadin' the way
My friends tell me,
She's the beast inside your paradise
I guess you've heard it all before
A fallen angel,
That has got you hypnotized
And that always needs some more, hu-u
And I love it, yeah I love it
She's done nothin' to mislead me
'Cause every time we meet,
The earth is shakin'
It doesn't matter, a glass is fallin'
I hear it shatter , maybe it's rainin'
Faster and faster, shadow dancin'
Together oh I, I'm bettin' on the game of love
Oh oh oh I, I'm bettin' that love is gonna come out
When the walls no longer shout, back at mea
And I'm feeling proud
When the lady smiles,
She holds me in her hand
As a matter of fact, she could always let me down
But when the lady smiles,
I can't resist her call
As a matter of fact,
I don't resist at all
'Cause we're walkin' on clouds
And she is leadin' the way
Oh no, oh no, oh no
The lyrics to Golden Earring's song "When The Lady Smiles" depict a man confessing his love and infatuation with a woman's smile and touch. He describes how her warm and resourceful lips and sensual fingertips can drive him wild, and how he loves it every time the earth shakes and glasses shatter when they are together. The man also acknowledges his friends' warnings that the woman could be a "beast" or a "fallen angel" but he cannot resist her call and feels like he is walking on clouds when he is with her.
At its simplest level, the song is a straightforward love song celebrating the joy and excitement that the singer feels when he is with the lady in question. The lyrics suggest that he is absolutely enamoured with her, and cannot resist her seductive charms. The song is notable for its catchy melody, upbeat tempo, and memorable chorus, which all contribute to the overall sense of enthusiasm and excitement that it conveys.
However, there may be a deeper interpretation to the lyrics as well. Some have suggested that the "beast inside [the] paradise" that the singer's friends refer to is a reference to the dark side of love - the inevitable heartbreak and pain that can come with falling for someone. The lyrics "when the walls no longer shout back at me" could be read as a reference to the walls closing in around the singer as his relationship with the lady becomes more intense and consuming. Nonetheless, he still feels proud to be with her and willingly follows wherever she leads him.
Overall, "When The Lady Smiles" is a song that celebrates the euphoric feelings that come with being in love, while also acknowledging the potential pitfalls and dangers that can lurk beneath the surface.
Line by Line Meaning
When the lady smiles,
The woman's smile has a captivating effect on me.
You know it drives me wild
I am entranced by her smile.
Her lips are warm and resourceful
Her lips are passionate and skilled.
When her fingertips,
When she touches me with her hands,
Go drawing circles in the night
She creates a sensual mood with her touch.
Then the mood is soft and sensual, hu
Her touch creates an atmosphere of tenderness and sensuality.
And I love it, yeah I love it
I am deeply enamored with her touch.
It's the answer to all my dreams
Her touch fulfills all of my desires.
Every time it feels like the earth is shakin'
I am overwhelmed by my attraction to her.
It doesn't matter, a glass is fallin',
My passion is so strong that it distracts me from my surroundings.
I hear it shatter,
I am so focused on her that I barely notice the sound of broken glass.
Maybe it's raining, faster and faster, shadow dancin'
My focus on her intensifies even as external factors change.
Together oh I, I'm a bettin' on the game of love
I am willing to take a risk on our relationship.
Oh oh oh I, I'm bettin' that love is gonna come out
I have faith that our love will succeed.
When the walls no longer shout, back at me
When my doubts and fears are silenced,
And I'm feelin' proud
I feel confident and secure in our relationship.
She holds me in her hand
She has control over me.
As a matter of fact, she could always let me down
I am aware that she has the power to hurt me.
But when the lady smiles,
But her smile has a magnetic pull on me.
I can't resist her call
I am unable to resist her attraction.
As a matter of fact,
In fact,
I don't resist at all
I give in completely to her.
'Cause I'm walking on clouds
I am ecstatic and euphoric in her presence.
And she is leadin' the way
She is in control of our relationship.
My friends tell me,
My friends warn me,
She's the beast inside your paradise
She has the potential to disrupt my life.
I guess you've heard it all before
I am aware of the risks.
A fallen angel,
She has a dark side.
That has got you hypnotized
But I cannot resist her charm.
And that always needs some more, hu-u
She is never satisfied.
She's done nothin' to mislead me
She has not deceived me.
'Cause every time we meet,
Because every encounter we have,
The earth is shakin'
I am consumed by my passion for her.
It doesn't matter, a glass is fallin'
I am oblivious to my surroundings.
I hear it shatter , maybe it's rainin'
External factors do not affect my attraction to her.
And we're walkin' on clouds
We are in a blissful state of happiness.
Oh no, oh no, oh no
There may be danger in our relationship, but I am willing to take the risk.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: BARRY HAY, GEORGE KOOYMANS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Lorédana (Lor)🖤Thérèse *MoyocoyotziN*🔥
I FriggiN FuckinG LovE YoU 59, 🔥❤️🔥
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOIK 🔥🔥🔥❤️🔥🔥🔥
THIS IS MF NEDERROCK, TURN IT THE FUCK UP HONEY🔊🎵🎶🎵🎼🎹🎷🎸🎸🎸🎺🎻🪕🪕💥💥💥🔥🔥🔥🔥💣💣💣🔥🔥🔥💥
When the lady smiles, you know it drives me wild
Her lips are warm and resourceful
When her fingertips, go drawing circles in the night
Then the mood is soft and sensual, hu-you
And I love it, yeah I love it
Its the answer to all my dreams
Every time it feels like the earth is shakin'
It doesn't matter, a glass is fallin',
I hear it shatter, maybe its raining,
Faster and faster, shadow dancin',
Together oh I, I'm a bettin' on the game of love
Oh oh oh I, I'm bettin' that love is gonna come out
When the walls no longer shout, back at me
And I'm feelin' proud
When the lady smiles, she holds me in her hand
As a matter of fact, she could always let me down
But when the lady smiles, I can't resist her call
As a matter of fact, I don't resist at all
Cause I'm walking on clouds and she is leadin' the way
My friends tell me, she's the beast inside your paradise
I guess you've heard it all before
A fallen angel, that has got you hypnotized
And that always needs some more, hu-you
And I love it, yeah I love it
She's done nothin' to mislead me
Every time it feels like the earth is shakin'
It doesn't matter, a glass is fallin',
I hear it shatter, maybe its raining,
Faster and faster, shadow dancin',
Together oh I, I'm a bettin' on the game of love
Oh oh oh I, I'm bettin' that love is gonna come out
When the walls no longer shout, back at me
And I'm feelin' proud
When the lady smiles, she holds me in her hand
As a matter of fact, she could always let me down
But when the lady smiles, I can't resist her call
As a matter of fact, I don't resist at all
Cause were walkin' on clouds and she is leadin' the way
AnD⤵️⤵️⤵️
https://youtu.be/a1sf2CzEq0w
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥❤️💥💥💥💥💯💥💥💥💥❤️
AnD⤵️⤵️⤵️
https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Earring
Pure NederRocK... 💥💥💥🔥💣🔥🔥🔥🎶🎵💥💥💥💥Je weet wel... Zoals NederWeeD... 🌱🔥🔥🔥🖤🔥🔥🔥💥💥💥💯💯💯💯💯💯KicK💥💥💥🔥🔥🔥❤️🔥🔥🔥
🔥🔥🔥🖤🔥🔥🔥
huib2908
Today it was announced that George Kooymans is suffering from ALS and that the band will stop. The best Dutch rock band ever
La Comadreja
George Kooymans, great singer.
markriobr
@John Lee Should hear Laid Back
Martijn Langeveld
@John Lee thats true😊
And im a Dutchman
Martijn Langeveld
Zo triest, wat een geweldige gasten en muziekanten.....
Richard Streetbob
Proud to be dutch!! One of the best Dutch bands..
La Comadreja
Glory to the Netherlands. 🇳🇱🇳🇱💪💪💪greetings from Uruguay.
Richard Streetbob
@Manolito calor afkomst maakt niks uit... Ja toch niettan😉
Manolito calor
ik ben allochtoon en toen ik dit liedje hoorde werdt ik blij in holland te mogen wonen
Broncycolon 70
@Peter Kruzenga of course,Herman was great too,saw him 7 or 8 times....Focus,Livin'Blues,Arjen Lucassen and and and...