Radar Love was huge… so what happened to Golden Earring?
- aimeeelkington153
- Oct 10
- 7 min read
Not everyone gets a smash hit on their first try. It’s pretty common for bands to spend a couple albums honing their craft before they break out.
But 8 albums? That’s a bit rare. But that's the way it went for Dutch rockers Golden Earring. They were quite happy enjoying their careers in the Netherlands, where they were pretty successful. And then out of the blue, they went global.. 12 years into their career.
Let's look at the story behind Radar Love, where it came from, and where it went.
So, most of you will know this song, but i wonder how many of you can name many other tracks by Golden Earring. It’s a strange one. You’d be forgiven for thinking they were a bit of a one hit wonder, except that’s not totally true.
Let's do the backstory first. Golden Earring were formed in 1961, initially called The Tornadoes. They changed the name to The Golden Earrings and shortened it to Golden Earring by the end of the 60’s.
Fun fact, the name was inspired by a 1947 song of the same name.
The line up we’d be most familiar with was: Rinus Gerritsen on bass, keys, and occasional other instruments; George Jan Kooymans on lead guitar and backing vocals; Cesar Zuiderwijk on drums and other percussion, and Barry Hay on lead vocals and the odd instrument.
Hay joined in 1967 and Zuiderwijk in 1970- they weren’t founding members.
All of them were really multi instrumentalists, and would often swap instruments during songwriting and recording - it was a group effort.
You’re probably wondering: Dutch guys? But Radar love sounds so American! There's a good reason for that. Barry Hay was born in India to an Indian father and Dutch mother, and grew up mostly in the Netherlands attending an international school. He therefore ended up with something very close to an American accent, which is very common for students of international schools.
So it’s not just a convincing American accent - that’s really him. Anyway.
They started out as teenagers playing instrumental surf rock and rock’n’roll covers in dance halls and small venues like that in their local area. As they built up a fanbase, they started experimenting with their own sound and original material.
By ‘64 they brought in their first singer Frans Krassenburg and started recording demos with vocals. They didn’t officially release anything until 1965 - it seems they were always slow burners.
But they were right to wait - when they released their first single Please Go in 1965, it was a hit, breaking the top 10 at home.
They quickly followed it up with first album Just Ear-Rings that same year. It didn’t chart, probably because singles were more prominent at the time. But they got solid radio playtime and a solid live following, they were a national act.
Their second hit That Day hit no.2 in the Dutch charts - beaten only by The Beatles to no.1. And they kept the momentum going with some more singles that year. By the end of ‘66, they were a solid feature in the Dutch rock and pop charts, and had some fanbase in parts of Europe as well.
In ‘67 their sound changed up a bit with new singer Barry Hay, who is the voice you hear on Radar Love. Hay brought a more commanding stage presence and that radio friendly accent that would help them later on.
After ‘67, they also evolved into a more hard rock sound, which went down a storm.
Their 1970 self titled album featured radio friendly rock songs, and had their first Number 1 back home in the Netherlands.
Single Holy Holy life and 1971 album Seven tears also charted well, and more importantly broke out of the Netherlands - they were now charting in Germany, and by ‘72 were playing big shows there and touring Europe. They were building.
And then came Radar Love. They wrote it in 1973, and knew they had something special on their hands.
They’d recently swapped record labels, and been given a big push. Barry Hay spoke to American Songwriter about this time.
“We signed up with Track records, the label of The Who. And they really put an effort into it, because they had a sort of monkey wrench. If they could put us together on tour in Europe, they could put us together in Madison Square Garden. So we were sort of the sons of the Who.”
But they needed a big song to take out with them, something new. Something to stand out.
And as these things sometimes do, it almost wrote itself. Lead guitarist George Kooymans was messing around with something new, and the band decided to see where it would go.
Hay had the idea of playing that melody on bass, and having a call - and response thing going on with the guitar. And then the rest of the band piled in. In the same interview, Hay explained what happened.
“And then it sort of grew. It happened that night when we were in the studio. It just manifested itself. All the instrumental pieces came. Our bass player (Rinus Gerritsen) came up with the intro, which is pretty much the same sort of thing that comes in after the drum part. It just happened. That’s the way things go sometimes. It was spur of the moment.”
They took a very democratic ‘no bad ideas’ approach, and filled it out with a horn section and some nice touches like that slide guitar solo.
Before they knew it, they had a full song on their hands, and a good one. But not a scrap of lyrics.
That was Hay's job, and at first he wasn’t sure how to do the song justice. And then he took inspiration from left field. Extra Sensory perception... Contact with the other side.
“I was listening to the music on the side and the story just took wings. I remember, in those days, I was really interested in ESP. I read some shit about it. And that sort of crawled in. Like there’s an accident, but these people still have ESP, they still have contact in a way. Which is sort of a magical thing, out of the ordinary from your run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-road lyric. It’s a bit obscure, but it did the trick.”
Let's be honest, most of the best songs through the years have had lyrics with strange inspirations. That’s what makes rock more interesting. Radar love tells the story of a man speeding through the night to meet his lover, with whom he shares a telepathic link.
I've been drivin' all night, my hands wet on the wheel
There's a voice in my head that drives my heel
It's my baby callin', says, "I need you here"
And it's a-half-past four, and I'm shifting gear
When she is lonely, and the longing gets too much
That’s what he means by Radar Love:
But some people miss the sad ending of the song But Hay has confirmed that at the end of the song, the main character crashes and dies.
“The guy actually dies. That’s the gist of the whole thing. In a way, she still has contact with him. There is an afterlife.”
Anyway, the band loved it, the production team loved it, and Radar Love was on.
They dropped it in the Netherlands in august 1973, and it smashed to No.1. Then something unexpected happened: It charted in the UK. It hit no.13 upon release, and then No.7 in early ‘74.
So they decided to release it in America… and it went off. All of sudden, Radar love was global. Top 20 in the US, and top ten across the UK, Europe, Canada and even Australia.
As always, it’s not all about chart positions. They’re just a number. The real measure of success is how a song makes you feel: And Radar Love has feel by the bucketful.
It’s a brilliant driving song. Often voted the best driving song of all time. The lyrics and that infectious call and response just don’t get old. That beat is smooth but relentless..
It’s a half past four and I'm shifting gear… So simple, but It's hard to resist putting your foot down. Although I don't recommend speeding. The song does end in a fatal crash after all. Drive safe. But do it with this song turned up loud.
So if it was such a hit, and so great.. Why did they sort of fade away afterwards?
Well, to be honest they were almost victims of their own success. It’s not like they went anywhere after Radar Love. They kept on releasing albums, good ones too. And they kept up world tours for at least a decade.
But Radar Love was so good that they were never really going to be able to top it - it’s not that their later songs weren’t great. But they just weren’t as big as that. And there’s also that magic of the first big breakout - it’s larger than life.
So the idea that they disappeared after Radar Love is a bit of an illusion. They did actually manage another US hit through the song Twilight Zone in 1982. But in music, 9 years might as well be 90.
The global attention had wandered elsewhere.
It wasn't all doom and gloom for Golden Earring though. They still enjoyed popularity in their homeland and Europe, particularly Germany, right up until 2021 when they stopped playing due to George Kooyman's sickness and sadly his death earlier this year.
Happily, the remaining members plan a series of farewell gigs next year in his, and Golden Earrings, honour. You can bet Radar Love will be played every night.
Like any great song, its legacy isn’t going anywhere. There’s at least 50 official covers of it out there - and who knows how many times it’s been covered by pub rock bands.
Plus, it still racks up millions of streams every month online.
All this from a friendly bunch of blokes from the Netherlands!
If you'd rather watch than read these stories from music history, check out my YouTube channel!
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