Saturday, January 31, 2009

Palate Cleanser: Radar Love

It's been a rough week in the conservative blogosphere. As demoralizing as the budget controversy has been, I'm about ready to move on. I can hardly wait to see what the second month of 2009 holds in store for us.

As a little palate cleanser, I thought I'd link a classic 1973 hit from the Dutch rock band Golden Earring. This little ditty has been playing in my head for the past few days so I figured I'd share the pain with my readers.

"Radar Love"



A little info on the band, courtesy of wikipedia:

Golden Earring was formed in 1961 in The Hague by 13-year-old George Kooymans and his 15-year-old neighbour, Rinus Gerritsen. Originally called The Tornados, the name was changed to Golden Earrings when they discovered that The Tornados was already in use by another group. The name Golden Earrings was taken from a song, originally sung by Marlene Dietrich in 1947 and a hit for Peggy Lee in 1948, with which they opened their concerts. Initially a pop rock band with Frans Krassenburg as lead singer, Golden Earrings had their first chart success with their debut single "Please Go", recorded in 1965. It reached number 9 on the music charts in The Netherlands. Unsatisfied with Dutch recording studios, the band's manager and co-discoverer Fred Haayen arranged for the next single to be recorded at the Pye Records studios in London. The record cut at Pye, "That Day", reached number two on the Dutch charts, prevented from reaching number one by The Beatles' "Michelle".

In 1968, the band earned their first number one hit in the Netherlands with the pop song "Dong Dong Diki Diki Dong". This was followed by a successful psychedelic album Eight Miles High, which featured an eighteen-minute version of the title track, itself a cover of the 1966 hit song by The Byrds. The live version, which could last 45 minutes, was considered by some to be a highlight in their first and second American tours, in the middle of the hippie and flower power era in the same year Woodstock was organised: 1969.

The band enjoyed brief international superstar status in the Seventies when the single version of "Radar Love", from the Gold-certified album Moontan became a hit in both Europe and the USA. Golden Earring embarked on their first major US tour in 1969 - 1970, and were among the first European bands to do so. Due to American influences, their music evolved towards hard rock, and they performed along with Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. Between 1969 and 1984, Golden Earring completed thirteen US tours. During this period, they performed as the opening act for Santana, The Doobie Brothers, Rush and .38 Special. In the early seventies, when "Radar Love" was a hit, they had KISS and Aerosmith as their opening act.

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