Ca Va

When anyone asks me what's my favorite Dutch rock band, I say Gruppo Sportivo, who else?  I still remember the first time I heard them.  I thought "this is in English, but it sounds like they're singing phonetically." The leader of the band, Hans Vandenburg, explains:

We write in English because no one else outside Holland speaks Dutch and we want our songs to be heard and listened to everywhere.

Hey, it worked for ABBA.

Maybe my fave song is "Mission A Paris"--so they sing in French, too.  In fact, it's about a spy who pushes another spy off the Eiffel Tower and needs a dictionary to figure out what he said on his way down.  It's a love song.  Here's a portion:



Here they are about 30 years later.  The song is "Superman," but it opens with Zappa's "Take Your Clothes Of When You Dance."



A pretty good comment on YouTube:  Stranglers + B52's + Ian Dury = Gruppo Sportivo