Golden Earring is the best known and internationally most succesful rock band to come out of The Netherlands. Their most famous song are the international hits 'Twilight Zone', 'When the Lady Smiles' and 'Radar Love'.
Founded in 1961, Golden Earring has been active for nearly 50 years non-stop. The current line-up has been together since 1970, which makes Golden Earring the world’s longest surviving rock band, having been formed a year before The Rolling Stones.
In 1961 George Kooymans (age 13) and his neighbour Rinus Gerritsen formed The Tornados in their home tow ...read more
Golden Earring is the best known and internationally most succesful rock band to come out of The Netherlands. Their most famous song are the international hits 'Twilight Zone', 'When the Lady Smiles' and 'Radar Love'.
Founded in 1961, Golden Earring has been active for nearly 50 years non-stop. The current line-up has been together since 1970, which makes Golden Earring the world’s longest surviving rock band, having been formed a year before The Rolling Stones.
In 1961 George Kooymans (age 13) and his neighbour Rinus Gerritsen formed The Tornados in their home town of The Hague. The band’s first line-up mainly played The Shadows covers.
In 1963, as the band found out that there was an older British band called The Tornados, they decided to change their name into The Golden Earrings (after a Peggy Lee song). The band recorded four albums and had twelve hit singles in The Netherlands between 1965 and 1969.
The band’s international career started to take off in 1969, the year of their first U.S. tour and also the year in which the band name was changed into Golden Earring. A year later, in 1970, a new dummer was recruited. The new line-up was the line-up that is still active today: Barry Hay (lead vocals/guitar/flute), George Kooymans (guitar/vocals), Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums) and Rinus Gerritsen (bass/harmonica/keyboards). « hide
