BEE GEES OF THE NETHERLANDS: PUSSYCAT

IN THE BEGINNING

One evening while wondering through music on YouTube I kept seeing this one video to click on.  Rain by a band called Pussycat.  Curiosity, it's said, killed the cat.  What I found fascinated me.  It was a Dutch/Netherlands band doing a kind of Pop-Country Music.  Later, I learned, they were known as the Bee Gees of the Netherlands.  As someone who grew up listening to the wonderful harmonies of the Everly Brothers, then later the Bee Gees, this trio of simple-looking, mildly amusing ladies, with their smooth harmonies, backed by an excellent band of gentlemen, was impressive enough.  I began to search for more of their music.  Could they equal this simple song I was watching them sing.  I doubted it.  Take a look at what I saw and heard.



MEMBERS OF PUSSYCAT

The band originally consisted of the three Kowalczyk sisters: Tonny Wille', Betty Drastra, and Marianne Hensen from Limburg, Netherlands.   Other members of the band are Lou Wille', husband of Tonny, Theo Wetzels, Theo Coumans, and John Theunissen.  Tonny became lead singer and still has a solo career, while her sisters have stopped touring.  Almost all their hits were penned by Werner Theunissen, a brilliant Dutch songwriter.  They rose to internatiional fame with a song called Mississippi, which went to # 1 in the U.K. in 1976, knocking ABBA off the top of the U.K. charts at the time. 

(The song Mississippi is on YouTube, for now.  EMI is forcing the song off YouTube over copyright issues.  So, why post a song sure to disappear?  Nevermind, that I bought a Greatest Hits CD by Pussycat, thanks to hearing Mississippi and other Pussycat songs on YouTube.  It is a shame EMI and other record companies, songwriters, and sometimes bands are not wise enough to realize, they are doing more harm than good to their own income by banning music videos.  I'll save this topic for another day.) 

The following song is one that endured me to Pussycat forever.  It is a beautiful song called My Broken Souvenirs.  Why this song did not go number one worldwide, I will never know.  However, that's just my opinion.  This song stopped me in my tracks, as I played it over and over.  Your turn to listen to one of the greatest songs America has never had the chance to hear, until YouTube.

BAND FOR A DECADE

Pussycat was to last from the mid-1970s into the mid-1980s, creating numerous hits during that time.  Smile would be the band's only other chart song in the U.K.  They were popular in a large part of Europe, particularly West Germany (before re-unification of East and West).  I believe they also achieved popularity in South Africa, while never traveling to the United States.  I watched a documentary on the band on YouTube, with sub-titles.  In the documentary, they stated their reason for not coming to the United States.  It was because they had little desire to do the constant touring grind, usually associated with touring in the USA.  They tried to limit their concert schedule to 3 days per week, if I understand the documentary right.  That's an interesting concept.  It worked very well for Pussycat.  Whatever fame or fortune there was to achieve under those circumstances, Pussycat achieved it!  YouTube attests to their continued popularity right into 2012.

THEY COULD ROCK THE HOUSE TOO

The final musical post is called Teenage Queenie or Teenage Queeny, depending on your source.  This song proves the band was more than a Pop-Country band.  They could Rock the house too! When you realize Pussycat was never heard in the USA, then disappeared from the U.K., with only two songs charting, it is incredible to see on YouTube, how many quality songs Pussycat is responsible for.  However, it's time to show you that last video, so you can see for yourself.



FINAL THOUGHTS

In the future, I will return to Pussycat.  Hopefully, with more YouTube videos, to bring this Netherlands band more into the minds, hearts, and CD buying public's awareness.  EMI would do well to promote this Seventies-Eighties band on YouTube, rather than remove the videos and music of Pussycat.  There is no understanding the music business sometimes.  Often it seems to be the enemy of its buying public.  Thank you for joining me in getting to know Pussycat.

SOURCES

(My humble thanks to AAWillemsen for the videos posted here from YouTube.  Without his videoposts, I would not own a Pussycat Greatest Hits CD today.  In fact, I doubt I would have heard of the band.  Please view his other YouTube videos and consider subscribing to his video music channel.)

Other sources for this post are Wikipedia and the documentary.  I shall attempt to find the documentary, with subtitles, then update this post with that information.  I had not originally intended to use the information, but since I did, I like to cite sources, whenever possible.