Does this sound like the Beatles to you?

[highplainsdem]

This 1972 song was the most successful single from a Dutch band, Smyle, whom I'd never heard of till this afternoon, when I ran across this tweet:

Link to tweet

Some info on Smyle from Last.fm:

https://last.fm/music/Smyle/+wiki

As that says, this single reached the Dutch Top 10. It was in the Top 10 for a couple of weeks, on the Dutch charts for a couple of months.

I ran across that tweet only because it had mentioned the song was written by George Kooymans, the Golden Earring guitarist I posted about here -- https://democraticunderground.com/10181674319 -- because he's battling ALS, and still trying to write new songs. As I mentioned in reply 57 there -- https://democraticunderground.com/10181674319#post57 -- George has written songs for other artists that became their biggest hits, launching their careers (in addition to all the hits he wrote for Golden Earring), but the hit he wrote for Smyle was a new one to me. I'd read elsewhere that Dutch groups, especially those from The Hague (Golden Earring's home), were always asking George for songs, but even this Top 10 hit apparently wasn't notable enough to get mentioned on the very comprehensive fan sites I'd seen earlier.

And I thought this one was particularly interesting because it does sound so much like the Beatles. Which was just what Smyle wanted, with a lead singer who sounded like John Lennon.

Two more videos, the first just audio of the single, but you'll see a photo of the band in 1972. And the second video is of a performance in 2009.

[underpants]

1. Golden Earring was the very first band I saw at an actual concert

They opened for Aerosmith in 78 or 79.
I’ve seen your posts and wasn’t sure if I’d commented.

Since we were “going out downtown” mom made us wear basically our church clothes without the jacket. I was 12. My brother was in middle school so he hid the shirt and tie and was just wearing his white tshirt. A younger teacher who worked with my mom and her boyfriend took us. My brother met us back at the car smelling like everyone else at the concert did. This was a new smell to me.

[highplainsdem]

4. Great story! I wonder how long it took your mom to recognize that "concert" smell.

[Beakybird]

2. Great song, it sounds like one the Fab 4 might have written for sure.

The lyrics aren't up to Beatles quality, but it's a fantastic song.

[highplainsdem]

5. Thanks for the reply! After I posted this it occurred to me to do

a search on Steve Hoffman's music forum to see if anyone there mentioned Smyle and this song, and I found out some people had, while a lot of others had never heard of them. One of the people who hadn't also called the song "fantastic."

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-beatles-song-that-wasnt-sound-alikes.1121079/page-5#post-28385389

And the post they were responding to had said the song had "actually wound up included on a couple of Beatles bootleg albums."

[malthaussen]

3. The lead vocalist sounds a bit like Lennon.

Otherwise, no, they don't remind me of the Beatles.

-- Mal

[highplainsdem]

6. Okay, and thanks for replying! I don't expect people to have identical reactions to

Last edited Sun Aug 7, 2022, 01:57 AM - Edit history (1)

any music.

Smyle's lead singer, Bas Muys (or Muijs, the alternate Dutch spelling), had some more success in the '80s because he sounds like John Lennon. He sang Lennon's songs for Stars On 45

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_on_45

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_on_45_(song)

and they had a single with a medley of Beatles tunes done by Muys and other Dutch singers who were soundalikes for McCartney and Harrison. And that single was a #1 hit in the US (actually knocking Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" off the top of Billboard's chart) as well as the Netherlands and lots of other countries, according to Wikipedia's articles.

But that George Kooymans song had given Muys his first taste of success with a song that does sound a lot like the Beatles to some people (including me; I was surprised by it).


EDITING to add video of Stars On 45:

[electric_blue68]

7. I think it sounds like the pop side of The Beatles. It's fun.

[highplainsdem]

10. I agree completely!

[G2theD]

8. I always thought Oasis sounded Beatleish.

https://m.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=oasis+don%27t+look+back+in+anger

[highplainsdem]

9. They do, a little. '90s Britpop was influenced by the Beatles and other '60s stars like

the Who and the Kinks, as well as the Stone Roses, who were so popular and influential just before Oasis made it big.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/liam-gallagher-opens-stone-roses-meant-much-growing-2155913

But of course the Stone Roses had had a lot of the same '60s influences as Oasis. And when the Roses broke up, the first time, and their brilliant guitarist, John Squire, formed a new band he named the Seahorses, their first (and only) album sounded, according to Rolling Stone, like a cross between the Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

https://democraticunderground.com/103465726

The Beatles, the Who and the Kinks had all been huge influences on Dutch bands including Golden Earring in the '60s. Along with the Stones and other British blues rock, and psychedelic music from the States. Golden Earring even did a cover of "Eight Miles High" that was an entire album side (though i prefer the shorter acoustic cover).

I love the way music influences continue.

[G2theD]

11. I saw a live concert (on TV) of a Beatles cover band called "The Fab Four"

and I was actually shocked at how much they sounded like the Beatles in the smallest detail.

I know this thread isn’t about Beatles imitators but just wanted to point this out for anyone that had a chance to see them. They do early Beatles, Sgt. Peppers, and Let it Be time periods. Highly recommend as it brought so many memories streaming back for me.

[highplainsdem]

12. Thanks, and it's fine to mention other Beatles imitators here. And I found video of a full

concert by the Fab Four (setlist in the video description on YouTube):

[emulatorloo]

14. Check out The Analogues on youtube if you haven't already. I think you might like them.

White Album Concert in Liverpool - The Analogues
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfVaHYQvTTBrbgOda5X6HEJa7rbJ4HGcw

Here’s one of the tracks from that show:

—-
Here’s a track from their Magical Mystery Tour concert:

[highplainsdem]

17. Great recommendation! Thanks!

[malthaussen]

21. Guess I know what I'm going to be doing for the rest of the day. n/t

[malthaussen]

15. "1964 the Tribute" is another good tribute band.

I once compared them, the Fab Four, and the actual Beatles all doing a live version of one of their '64 songs, and the ones who sounded the least like the Beatles were the Beatles (because they were live, not lip-synching). Tribute bands typically practice to sound like the recorded versions. The good ones also try to imitate the stage antics and quips of the originals.

1964 the Tribute has been doing the Beatles since 1984, and still tour with some of the original members! That's a lot of paychecks. The Fab Four are no spring chickens, either, having been formed in 1997.

-- Mal

[highplainsdem]

18. Thanks! They are really good (video below). As for what you said about

the Beatles sounding less like the Beatles than these tribute bands, since the tribute bands copy the studio versions of songs -- very good point.

[malthaussen]

22. I should also mention the Bootleg Beatles...

... who claim to be the first Beatles tribute band, organized in 1980. While this is technically true, the band no longer contains any of the original members.

-- Mal

[emulatorloo]

13. Fun thread, thanks for posting.

[highplainsdem]

19. You're welcome! I've had fun with this thread, too, and the last thing I'd've been

expecting yesterday morning was running across a Beatles-sounding Top 10 hit George Kooymans had written for another band but I'd never heard about. So glad I saw that tweet while skimming Twitter to see if any recent interviews turned up there that hadn't shown up in a Google search first.

[Marthe48]

16. I can see what you mean

I listen to an oldies channel that plays a lot of Beatles and other bands from that time. I think the voices and lyrics remind me more of the other bands.

The DJ shares trivia and I've learned that the musicians we grew up with often collaborated on songs, lyrics, even played in different bands. So I can see either hands on, or imitation as sincere flattery influence on the song.

[highplainsdem]

20. What that DJ said about musicians and bands collaborating tends to be true in various cities'

music scenes, whether Liverpool or London in the UK, or San Francisco, or Seattle, or The Hague scene in the Netherlands, which Golden Earring grew up in. They did have a lot of influences from the US and UK, though, and Golden Earring recorded occasionally in the UK even fairly early in their career, and they'd visit London clubs then.

Golden Earring got started in their early teens, and it isn't surprising that their music showed all sorts of influences early on. The videos below are songs from their early-1968 album Miracle Mirror. I think most of the band members were still in their teens when this was recorded, though the band had started several years earlier. This album was very UK and psychedelia influenced. They were still 5 years and 6 albums (and a change of drummers) away from "Radar Love" and Moontan.

Btw, I have no information on when the Smyle song in the OP had been written by George Kooymans. I don't know if it was a song he'd written before 1972 and just hadn't wanted to use for Golden Earring at that time, or if he wrote this song specifically for Smyle since they wanted an original song that sounded like the Beatles.

From Golden Earring's 1968 album Miracle Mirror. The first video was a Top 10 hit in the Netherlands. These songs were written by George Kooymans with bass player and keyboardist Rinus Gerritsen.

[Marthe48]

23. Your posts are well written and enthusuastic

It is interesting the way you have so much information gathered up about these particular bands in that era. Thanks for taking the time to write it out and explains. Really glad I jumped in and read your posts.

[highplainsdem]

24. Thank you! What a kind thing to say. But we have the internet to thank

for so much information being so easy to find. As I said in the OP, I hadn't heard of Smyle, or of George Kooymans writing that song for them, until I ran across that post on Twitter the other day.

I'm still surprised I hadn't read about them earlier, especially on a couple of Golden Earring fan sites that have a lot of info. Usually if an artist writes a song for another artist and it becomes a Top 10 hit, that's widely known. Think of Bowie giving "All The Young Dudes" to Mott the Hoople and that saving their career, for instance. But apparently George Kooymans did that sort of thing often enough that his helping Smyle this way didn't even get mentioned on those fan sites. Makes me wonder if I'll run across other mentions, still, of Top 10 hits he wrote for other artists. He contributed to a lot of careers besides his own. It's terrible that he can no longer play guitar, because of ALS, but I hope he will be able to find a way to continue writing songs.