#10: Radar Love by Golden Earring
City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: August-September 1974
Peak Position Hamilton ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #2
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #13
YouTube: “Radar Love”
Lyrics: “Radar Love”
Golden Earring is a Dutch band formed in 1961 in The Hague. Founder George Kooymans was born in The Hague in 1948. Together with Rinus Gerritsen, they originally formed a duo called The Tornados. But changed their name to The Golden Earrings when they learnt of The Tornados, the UK instrumental group who had just had a hit with “Telstar”. The name The Golden Earrings was taken from an instrumental called “Golden Earrings” performed by the British group the Hunters, for whom they served as opening and closing act. Gerritsen was also born in The Hague, in 1946, and learned to play bass guitar. The duo added more musicians to expand to a pop-rock band. The Golden Earrings had a Top Ten Dutch pop hit with their debut single “Please Go”, recorded in 1965. In 1966, “That Day” reached #2 on the Dutch pop singles chart. These singles had some echoes of The Beatles sound in the mid-60s.
After two albums, in 1967, Barry Hay joined The Golden Earrings on lead vocals permanently. Hay was born in 1947 in Faizabad, in northern India. He moved to the Netherlands with his Dutch-Jewish mother when his parents were divorced. However, as his maternal grandmother died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi Germany in October 1942, along with one daughter (a sister of his mother), his mother hid her Jewish identity after World War II. Hay learned to play flute and guitar, and to sing. He was with The Haigs in the mid-60s. In 1967, The Golden Earrings had their fifth and sixth Top Ten hit singles in the Netherlands: “”Sound of the Screaming Day” and “Together We Live, Together We Love”. In 1968, the band had their eighth Top Ten hit which climbed to number-one on the Dutch pop charts titled “Dong-Dong-Di-Ki-Di-Gi-Dong”. In 1969, on their Eight Miles High album they recorded a 19-minute cover of The Byrds 1966 hit single.
In 1970, their third drummer, Cesar Zuiderqijk, became a fixture in the core lineup that would last for 51 years. Zuiderqijk was the third member of the band born in The Hague, and like Kooymans in 1948. In his youth he learned to drum.
In 1970, the band dropped the “s” at the end of their name to become Golden Earring. Their sixth studio album was self-titled later that year. Golden Earring topped the Dutch pop album chart, and “Back Home” topped the Dutch singles chart. It also reached #2 in Belgium, #6 in Sweden, and #15 in West Germany. The sound of the band was now established as a rock band influenced by The Who among others.
Several more albums and singles were released in the early seventies, cementing the band’s popularity in Belgium and West Germany. Seven Tears also topped the Dutch album chart in 1971.
But it was the release of “Radar Love” that gave Golden Earring a place in rock history.
“Radar Love” was a track from the number-one Dutch pop album Montan. The album cracked the Top 20 on pop album charts in Australia, Canada and the USA. Kooymans and Hay co-wrote the song. In Radar Love a guy is driving down a road at “half past four” AM. He puts on the gas because his ‘baby’ is calling him (by using radar love) with a message to say that she needs him to come to her place. The song was made before text messages, FaceBook, Skype, FaceTime, and all the other ways of connecting on social media. The lyrics talk about having a 6th sense of knowing when your significant other needs you, in a sexual way. She sends him “a cable from above,” and they “don’t need no phone at all.”
While the guy is driving at half past four, on the radio he can hear Brenda Lee’s “Coming On Strong”. It evokes his growing anticipation as he gets closer to his girlfriend’s home.
“Radar Love” climbed to #1 in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Modesto (CA), La Crosse (WI), Amarillo (TX), Pueblo (CO), Evansville (IN), and Denver, #2 in Akron (OH), Kansas City (MO), Kalamazoo (MI), Hamilton (ON), Berlin (NH), Bellevue (WA), West Palm Beach (FL), Dodge City (KS), Flint (MI), and Vancouver (BC), #3 in Cleveland, Des Moines (IA), Allentown (PA), Indianapolis, and Tucson (AZ), #4 in Bismarck (ND), Worcester (MA), Miami, Saskatoon (SK), Newport News (VA), Reading (PA), Chicago, Portland (OR), Fresno (CA), Bloomington (IL), Columbus (OH), and Tacoma (WA), #5 in Ottawa, Dallas, Corpus Christi (TX), Fort Lauderdale, Utica (NY), Salt Lake City, and Wichita (KS), #6 in Victoria (TX), San Diego, Sioux Falls (SD), Knoxville (TN), Waynesboro (PA), Hartford (CT), Albany (NY), and New Haven (CT), #7 in Kingston (ON), Morgantown (WV), Tampa (FL), WashingtoN DC, LaFayette (IN), Milwaukee (WI), Troy (NY), and Colorado Springs (CO), #8 in Grand Rapids (MI), Moorehead (MN), San Francisco, Detroit, Tulsa (OK), Easton (PA), and Astoria (OR), #9 in Springfield (MA), Erie (PA), Madison (WI), Palm Springs (CA), Fargo (ND), Phoenix, San Bernardino (CA), and Green Bay (WI), #10 in Montreal, Fort Wayne (IN), Cedar Rapids (IA), Lowell (MA), and Seattle.
Internationally, “Radar Love” topped the pop chart in the Netherlands, reached #5 in West Germany, #6 in Belgium, #7 in the UK, #10 in Australia, Austria and Canada, #13 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #16 in Ireland.
By the end of the seventies, Golden Earring had racked up twenty-three Top Ten hit singles on the Dutch pop charts.
In 1983, “Twilight Zone” was a number-one hit in Regina (SK) and Winnipeg (MB). It reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Due to the number of weeks it spent on the pop chart, “Twilight Zone” ranked at #19 on Billboard’s Year-End chart for 1983. It also climbed to #5 in Belgium, and #13 on the Canadian RPM singles chart. In 1984, “When the Lady Smiles” topped both the pop charts in Belgium and the Netherlands. Over the decades Golden Earring has placed 29 singles in the Top Ten on the Dutch pop singles chart. Their final domestic Top Ten hit was in 2005 with “I’ve Just Lost Somebody”. Golden Earring’s last charting single in the Netherlands was in 2012 with “Still Got the Keys to My First Cadillac”, which reached #17. Eighteen of their albums have cracked the Top Ten on the Dutch album chart. Seven of their twenty-five albums topped the album chart in the Netherlands, the last being Tits n’ Ass in 2012.
Between 1971 and 2022, George Kooymans released four solo albums. In 2017, Kooymans formed (Strange Boarders), a Dutch-language supergroup, who released three studio albums in the following years. In 2021, George Kooymans was diagnosed with ALS. Golden Earring disbanded later that year. George Kooymans died of ALS in July 2025 at the age of 77.
In 2001, Barry Hay left The Hague and moved back to Amsterdam. In 2003-2004, he provided one of the voices for the animated Canadian cartoon show My Dad the Rock Star. He divides his time between the Netherlands and Curaçao, where he hosts a radio show. Between 1972 and 2022, Barry Hay has released five solo studio albums. In 2016, Hay released an album with side-project Flying V Formation, and his biography. The following year with the Flying V Formation, a single was released with a cover of the Ronettes 1963 hit single “Be My Baby”.
In 1985, Rinus Gerritsen opened the Rock Palace music store with Cesar Zuiderwijk. Rinus also writes articles for Dutch music magazine De Bassist. As well, he has also released several solo albums.
Since 1990, Zuiderwijk has taught people to play drums. On 1 May 2006, Cesar opened a music station, called The Rotterdam Branch of Music Station, where people can be taught music lessons. Since 2022, Cedsar Zuiderwijk has been a judge on the Dutch show The Tribute, Battle of the Bands. He also plays in the band Sloper.
Most published articles about Golden Earring are in Dutch.
January 31, 2026
Ray McGinnis
References:
“Golden Earring Co-Founder George Kooymans Dies Following ALS Diagnosis,” Best Classic Bands, July 23, 2025.
The Golden Earrings, “Please Go“, Polydor Records, 1965.
The Golden Earrings, “That Day“, Polydor Records, 1966.
The Golden Earrings, “Sound of the Screaming Day,” Polydor Records, 1967.
The Golden Earrings, “Dong-Dong-Di-Ki-Di-Gi-Dong“, Polydor Records, 1968.
Golden Earring, “Back Home” Polydor Records, 1970.
All Hit 40 – CKOC 1150-AM Hamilton (ON) | September 4, 1974
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