On The Double (1969) is a double album by Dutch beat group The Golden Earrings (from The Hague), who would (later in 1969) slightly change their name to become Golden Earring. On The Double was their fourth and final album under the moniker of The Golden Earrings.
Personnel:
Barry Hay - vocals
George Kooymans - guitar, vocals
Rinus Gerritsen - bass
Jaap Eggermont - drums
1969 was a crucial, pivotal year for The Golden Earrings. Founded in 1961, the band had released twelve singles in their nat...
On The Double (1969) is a double album by Dutch beat group The Golden Earrings (from The Hague), who would (later in 1969) slightly change their name to become Golden Earring. On The Double was their fourth and final album under the moniker of The Golden Earrings.
Personnel:
Barry Hay - vocals
George Kooymans - guitar, vocals
Rinus Gerritsen - bass
Jaap Eggermont - drums
1969 was a crucial, pivotal year for The Golden Earrings. Founded in 1961, the band had released twelve singles in their native The Netherlands in the years 1965-1968, ten of which reached the Dutch top ten. They were originally a Dutch equivalent of The Beatles: a melodic beat/pop band that slowly shifted towards psychedelic pop and 'flower power'-tinged pop in 1967 and 1968.
By 1968 they were Holland's most succesful band by far and generally regarded as a band with 'international potential', as underscored once more by the November 1968 hit single Just A Little Bit Of Peace In My Heart, a delicately arranged and orchestrated piece of work by George Kooymans, who was only 20 years of age at the time. The single only just failed to hit #1 in the Dutch charts: it got stuck at #2, but still stands as a Golden Earring classic, frequently played by the band during their acoustic theatre concerts today.
By the end of 1969 the band felt that they had somehow reached the end of an era: it was about time to work on an international career, and also time to choose a new musical direction.
It was in this phase, in January 1969, that On The Double, was put together and released by Polydor. A grab bag of random songs, it was the Earrings' stylistically most varied album to date (but a remarkably great one, nonetheless): Just A Little Bit Of Peace In My Heart was on it, several ballsy rockers, but also a simple, basic acoustic songs like Kooymans' Murdock 9-6182 and Rinus Gerritsen's Judy, sung by Barry Hay - and even the band's only ever piano ballad, The Grand Piano.
Double albums that felt like a grab bag of random songs were in fashion (The Beatles' eponymous 'white album'!), but this particular one also felt like an album by a band that had simply thrown all of its songs in the bag, ready to start with a clean sheet.
Made possible by their brand-new production company Red Bullet, The Golden Earrings crossed the Atlantic in the summer of 1969 for their first tour of the United States: a three-month, coast-to-coast trek. They had no radio hit in the U.S., but their live shows (a string of them supporting Led Zeppelin) went down extremely well, especially their cover version of The Byrds Eight Miles High, a raw, psychedelic version that would sometimes last for 45 minutes.
While in New York City, the band recorded a song, the tape was sent home and - while the band was touring the U.S., developing a completely new sound - Where Will I Be was released in The Netherlands in late June and reached #7 in the charts. It was the very last single under the moniker of The Golden Earrings.
When the Earrings returned home from the U.S. they were a different band and a different stage act. The 1960s were over and so were the days of the sixties band that was The Golden Earrings. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
