The Blue Diamonds were an Indonesian and Dutch 1960s rock and roll duo who sang in English, German, French and Spanish and sold 14 million records throughout their career. They were best known for their million-selling chart-topping single, "Ramona".
Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) brothers Ruud de Wolff (12 May 1941 – 18 December 2000) and Riem de Wolff (15 April 1943 – 12 September 2017) founded the group shortly after immigrating to Driebergen-Rijsenburg in the Netherlands in 1949. They were born in Batavia (now Jakarta), Indonesia.
Called the "Dutch– Indonesian Everly Brothers", the Blue Diamonds covered many Everly Brothers songs, but became famous in 1960 with their version of "Ramona", a song originally written for the 1928 film, Ramona. The song was written for promotional appearances with Dolores del Río (star of the film) but not featured in the film itself. The Blue Diamonds up-tempo version of it reached the American Billboard Hot 100 at number 72 in 1960. It sold over 250,000 copies in the Netherlands (the first record to ever do so) and over one million copies in Germany by 1961.
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| Ruud De Wolff |
Although their last hit was in 1971, they continued to perform together up until Ruud de Wolff died from bladder cancer at the end of the year 2000. After the death of his brother in 2000, De Wolff continued to make music. He also performed with his son under the name The New Diamonds. Although Riem De Wolff was diagnosed with cancer in his lungs and liver in August, he continued to perform and release albums until his death at a hospital in Blaricum, Holland on September 12, 2017. He was 74.
(Edited from Wikipedia)