EARLY PIERCINGS

Golden Earring is a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as the Golden Earrings (the 's' was dropped in 1969). They achieved worldwide fame with their international hit songs "Radar Love" in 1973, "Twilight Zone" aka "When the Bullet Hits the Bone" in 1982, and "When the Lady Smiles" in 1984. During their career they had nearly 30 top-ten singles on the Dutch charts; over the years they produced 25 studio albums. The band's lineup currently consists of co-founders Rinus Gerritsen (bass and keyboards) and George Kooymans (vocals and guitar), along with Barry Hay (vocals, guitar, flute and saxophone) and Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums and percussion). All musicians in the present lineup of the band have been continuous members of the band since 1970, although other musicians have joined and left the band during the intervening years.

Golden Earring celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2011 and have been performing almost continuously since their founding in 1961. They have had the same unchanged line-up of the same four musicians and friends since 1970, augmented from time to time with a fifth member (Dutch keyboardist and leader of legendary band Supersister, Robert Jan Stips). Along with the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, and Germany's The Lords, Golden Earring are one of the oldest rock bands that are still performing today, and Golden Earring has arguably the most stable lineup of these veteran bands.  Golden Earring's gigs are scheduled on a "one month on—one month off" basis. This is mainly due to lead singer Barry Hay's relocation to the Dutch Antilles island of Curaçao in the Caribbean, where he put up his new residence and lives during the band's time off.

This post features songs from three of their early lp's