Many Dutch people can sing songs like Can the lights be turned off and If she is not there sing along word for word. But did you know that De Dijk has only reached the top five once in all those years? A bird’s-eye view of the evergreens, which the charts barely paid attention to at the time.
By Michiel VosDe Dijk, who starts a series of farewell concerts on Friday evening in the Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, makes his debut in 1982 with the song Bleeding Heart. Today it is considered one of their most famous songs, but back then it didn’t make much of an impression. The single didn’t even make it to the Top 40 at all.
Enter without knocking from 1985 suffered the same fate. The song does not make it to the Top 40, but singer Huub van der Lubbe tells in 2000 Penthouse that the song still earns him enough money.
The singer wrote Enter without knocking about an affair he had during his marriage, with a woman who suddenly came into his life and disappeared just as suddenly. His wife stayed and Van der Lubbe says that the relationship has not left a bad aftertaste. “Not for the other person and not for my wife either. If only because – thanks to that song – we still eat well,” he jokes about it.
De vijf meest beluisterde nummers van De Dijk op Spotify
- 1. Als Ze Er Niet Is – 16 miljoen streams (5e plaats in Top 40)
- 2. Ik Kan Het Niet Alleen – 15,4 miljoen streams (18e plaats in Top 40)
- 3. Groot Hart – 8,2 miljoen streams (geen Top 40-notering)
- 4. Mag Het Licht Uit – 8 miljoen streams (23e plaats in Top 40)
- 5. Nergens Goed Voor – 6,8 miljoen streams (10e plaats in Top 40)
First Top 40 listing only in 1987
It was only in 1987 that De Dijk managed to reach the Top 40 for the first time with the song Can the lights be turned off. The number of the plate Waking Up In A Strange World has been in the 500 most popular records of all time almost every year since the beginning of the Top 2000 of Radio 2, but at the time did not go beyond 23rd position in the weekly list. After five weeks, the song disappeared from the charts again.
On the same album is Dancing on the volcano to find, a song written about two lovers who enjoy each other for a while before the world ends. Although the song didn’t even make the Top 40, it now turns out to be one of De Dijk’s most beloved songs. In the most recent edition of the Top 2000, it is even the band’s highest ranking at 273rd place.
With the fifth album Nobody In Town released in 1989, the band becomes more popular. However, that does not immediately result in a hit. The first single I can not do it alone is one of the band’s most popular songs with fifteen million streams on Spotify, but it does not go further than eighteenth place in the charts. The single that comes out next, Good For Nowhere, is the band’s first top ten ranking. With 6.8 million streams on Spotify, it has turned out to be a less timeless classic.
The title song Nobody In Town, on which Van der Lubbe sings, among other things, about a childhood friend who jumped to his death under the influence of drugs, was never released as a single, but it has left its mark. With a 291st place in the Top 2000 of 2021, the song has become the band’s second most loved song in that list and has become a fixture during their concerts.
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Biggest hit and number one albums
In 1994 De Dijk experienced its commercial peak with the release of the single If she is not there. The ode to Van der Lubbe’s wife Teuntje takes fifth place in the Top 40 and is still in the higher regions of the Top 2000 every year. On Spotify, the song is the band’s most listened song, with sixteen million plays.
After that the band still manages to reach the Top 40 here and there, but it is mainly the albums that do well. In 2002 they achieved with Musicians Don’t Dance for the first time the highest position with a studio album. Also Sharp The Scythe (2011) and Everyone’s Square (2014) top the album list for a week.
The classics of the pop band will undoubtedly pass by during the farewell concerts. De Dijk announced earlier this year to stop; for singer Van der Lubbe the surprise was over. The band starts the concert series Friday evening in the Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, where they play five shows. Then they tour the Dutch pop stages to say their final goodbyes on December 17 in Paradiso, where they also gave their first performance in 1981.
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