Golden Earring - Holy Holy Life (two 1971 TV appearances & live in Amsterdam, 12/12/2015) [View all]

[highplainsdem]

This was a non-album single for them in early 1971. Their record label wanted a hit to follow up on 1970's hit "Back Home," which was #1 in the Netherlands for more than a month, spending nearly 5 months in the Top 40 there. "Holy Holy Life" peaked at #3 and spent a couple of months in the Dutch Top 40. Like "Back Home," it was written by guitarist George Kooymans.

The first video is from the German TV show Hits A Go Go, and they're apparently lip-syncing. The second TV appearance, for another German show, Beat Club -- this song was on the German charts for several weeks -- was apparently live. And the third video is of a concert at Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome in late 2015. They were using this song, a fan favorite, to close their shows then, 45 years after it was recorded. While Barry's miming introducing the band and their backing musicians, you can see a couple of their old friends on stage with them, Bertus Borgers on saxophone and guitarist Frank Carillo (who did a new Kooymans/Carillo album with George this year, releasing songs in June that they'd started to work on before George was diagnosed with ALS a couple of years ago).