She lies sprawled but gracefully on the planks of an old attic floor. He stands very cool with his hands in the pockets of his bright red trousers, looking in the mirror. It is 1978 when the well-known duo Saskia & Serge releases their English-language record ‘Some girls grow up’. When visiting the duo, Serge still remembers where the record was recorded: “That was in the United States, Nashville.” Saskia supplements her husband, with whom she has been making music for almost sixty years, with some fun facts: “The photo was taken by star photographer Claude Vanheye. This record was also released in America, where it had a different front. Will Hoebee, Jose Hoebee’s late husband, was the producer.”
Old love
Serge explains how the pair made the important transition from Dutch to English music in the 1970s: “We initially made Dutch listening songs, such as ‘t Spinnewiel’ and ‘It’s the little things that matter’. But after a few years we had sung about all summers, autumns, winters, springs and islands. Moreover, we started to perform more and more and our need grew for a repertoire with which we could really take people along and get them loose live. Then we went back to our old love, the country. We did that before we sang Dutch. Will Hoebee just started and was coupled to us. Everyone around us said that we shouldn’t suddenly start singing in English, but we wrote ‘Baby I’ll give you everything’ and ‘Don’t tell me stories’ ourselves: both became big hits. But we had a creative need to change our style a bit, just like painters or novelists sometimes do.”
Wake up call
We hear another anecdote about the record when Saskia & Serge tell about a midnight phone call they received from Hans van Willigenburg, whom we all know as the presenter of ‘Coffee Time’ back in the day. Serge: “He was in Los Angeles in a record store as big as ‘De Bijenkorf’ in Amsterdam. Hans told how he entered that gigantic music store through the double doors and right in front was the first record he saw: an LP of ours. He was so enthusiastic that he immediately called us, not taking into account the time difference, so we got him on the phone in the middle of the night, haha.”
Photo: Andries Jelle de Jong
