Golden Earring – Live 1970s (l-r: Rinus Gerritsen, Barry Hay, Cesar Zuiderwijk, George Kooymans)
Introduction
On January 30, 2026, Golden Earring played its very last concert. The Dutch rock formation that existed for no less than 64 (!) years is no more. A perfect reason to collect their finest singles.
At the bottom of this article, the top 10 is available as a Spotify playlist.
Golden Earring
As long as I can remember, Golden Earring has been around. Although the band has been very successful and popular, I never listened to them that much. Musically, it just didn’t quite gel with me, as is also evident from my 10 favorite Dutch albums list, where the Earring was missing. My readers quickly filled that gap, but to me the band is more of a singles band.
For me, Herman Brood, Tröckener Kecks, Claw Boys Claw and, especially, The Fatal Flowers are the bands that matter more in Dutch rock music. Maybe it’s a generational thing. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that the band made a number of exceptional songs.
As a little boy, I owned the single Just Like Vince Taylor in its live version (see also Singles from my elementary school days). I clearly remember a school friend who owned the album Contraband, which includes one of my favorite Golden Earring tracks: Bombay. The band had international allure. Radar Love, and to a lesser extent Twilight Zone, are known all over the world.
Top 10
So, as an ode to Rinus Gerritsen, Barry Hay, George Kooymans (†) and Cesar Zuiderwijk, here are my personal 10 best Golden Earring singles. The years listed correspond to the year the single was released.
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Back Home1970 With the arrival of drummer Zuiderwijk in 1970, Golden Earring’s line-up reached its definitive form. Musically, things changed as well. Goodbye to the beat music and tentative steps toward psychedelia. Solid rock: the sound of Golden Earring would never the same again. Delicious riff! |
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Radar Love1973 From the album Moontan, which many consider to be the best album Golden Earring ever recorded. The ultimate ‘car song,’ probably one of the reasons the track was and still is so popular in the US. With over two million copies sold, it is the band’s biggest single success. The website radar-love.net is entirely dedicated to the song, its success, and the more than 800 (!) cover versions. |
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Ce Soir1975 With temporary band member Robert-Jan Stips, Ce Soir is darker than the rock music that enabled the band’s international breakthrough. From the album Switch, which perfectly summed up the band’s ambition: not to build further on a successful formula, but to try something different. And how, superb song. |
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Bombay1976 Leaving your current life behind and starting over somewhere else completely? It’s possible, in Bombay for instance. Featuring temporary band member Eelco Gelling, who came up with the Asian-flavored riff. This song takes me back to my younger years: spinning singles and albums on a turntable with friends. A wonderful funky track, by the way. |
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Just Like Vince Taylor (live)1977 The first Golden Earring single I ever bought. From the double album Live. An exciting rocker and a tribute to Vince Taylor. |
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Weekend Love1979 Sung (and written) by George Kooymans. A hit at a time when the band was struggling. The big successes were in the past, but this song still ended high in the (Dutch) charts. |
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Long Blond Animal1980 Like its predecessor, one of the few (minor) hits the band had at that particualr time in their career, but a strong rocker that quickly became a live favorite. |
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Twilight Zone1982 The band wanted to quit, but was persuaded to come up with a convincing farewell. And then, eight years after Radar Love, the band returned to the top of the charts, even reaching the US top 10 (higher than Radar Love ever managed). The success is deserved: the song swings, is different, yet still unmistakably Golden Earring. |
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When The Lady Smiles1984 And once again, success, internationally as well. The accompanying video was controversial. It showed images of a nun being assaulted in a subway and a dog eating a piece of the main character’s brain after surgery. A great track, once again featuring a leading role for drummer Zuiderwijk. |
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I’ve Just Lost Somebody (live)2005 From the 1990s onward, the band recorded several mostly acoustic live albums under the ‘naked’ banner. In 2005, the band released a live recording of this song, originally from 1968, when singer Barry Hay had just joined the band. The single was dedicated to a fan who was killed after a group of bored youths threw a stone from a viaduct through her car window. A beautiful gesture by the band, that delivered a glowing version of the song. It would be the last single to reach the charts. |
In closing
What’s your take on Golden Earring? Are there any songs you miss, and if so, which ones? Let me know!
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: The 10 best Golden Earring singles. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
