George Baker (musician)
| George Baker | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Johannes Bouwens |
| Born | 8 December 1944 |
| Origin | Hoorn, Netherlands |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter |
| Years active | 1967–present |
| Website | www.georgebaker.com |
George Baker (born Johannes (Hans) Bouwens, 8 December 1944) is a Dutch singer and songwriter who, with his band George Baker Selection, scored two international hits in the 1970s, "Paloma Blanca" and "Little Green Bag". He is now a solo artist. Little Green Bag is used as the opening soundtrack for the movie Reservoir Dogs.
Bouwens was born 8 December 1944, the child of a Dutch woman and an Italian soldier who ended up in the Netherlands during World War 2 as a prisoner of war. His father was killed while attempting to escape, before Bouwens was born. He was raised in Hoorn, in a working-class neighborhood, with only a radio and a stack of books to keep him company after all his friends moved on to better neighborhoods. His musical idol was Elvis.
By 1967 Bouwens was living in Wormerveer and joined the band Soul Invention, a soul band which played covers of songs by Otis Redding and Sam and Dave. They changed their name to "George Baker Selection", Bouwens naming himself for a character from a detective novel. The band consisted of Jan Hop, Jacobus Greuter, George The, and Jan Visser. Their first album, Little Green Bag (1970), produced an immediate worldwide hit: their debut single, "Little Green Bag" reached No. 16 on the Cash Box magazine chart and No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in the United States. The song was written in reference to the American dollar and was titled "Little Greenback" but the record company misinterpreted the words. The "new" name stuck and it was used. However, the words in the song then, and now, are "greenback" not "green bag." The success came as a surprise for Baker, who remembers hearing in on the radio at work, in a lemonade factory. The single sold over one million copies globally, and received a gold disc. A string of singles and albums followed; the second single, "Dear Ann", was such a success that Baker quit his job in the lemonade factory and became a full-time musician. Besides scoring hits with his own band, he also wrote songs for others, including BZN, The Shoes, Andy Star, and Next One. In 1974 singer Lida Bond joined the band, and combining her voice with Baker's proved highly successful.
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