Johannes "Hans" Bouwens (born 8 December 1944), known as George Baker, is a Dutch singer and songwriter who, with his band George Baker Selection, scored three international hits; "Little Green Bag" (1969), "Paloma Blanca" (1975) and "Santa Lucia by Night" (1985).
Bouwens was born as the son of a single mother. His father, an Italian soldier, Peppino Caruso, had been killed trying to escape from detention by the Germans when they occupied the Netherlands. Bouwens was raised by his mother and his grandparents, first in Hoorn and from 1957 on the Wandelweg in Wormerveer. There, he sang and played guitar in a schoolband (The Jokers) with Bob Ketzer, but at the age of 14 he left school and took jobs unloading ships on the Zaan and eventually as a factory worker at a lemonade factory. In 1961, he took the stage name "Body" and formed the band Body and the Wild Cats, with Bob Ketzer and his brother Ruud as well as Gerrit Bruyn on bass, all from Wormerveer.
In 1968, Bouwens joined the band Soul Invention, which was founded the previous year by Henk Kramer in Assendelft and played covers of songs by Otis Redding and Sam and Dave. Bouwens co-wrote the song "Little Green Bag" in the summer of 1969. After he adopted the pseudonym “George Baker”(a character from a detective novel), the pop-rock band changed its name “George Baker and the Selection. Their first album, Little Green Bag (1970), produced an immediate worldwide hit: their debut single, "Little Green Bag," reached No. 16 on the Cash Box magazine chart and No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and sold over one million copies globally, and received a gold disc.
A string of singles and albums followed; the second single, "Dear Ann", was such a success that Baker resigned from his job in the lemonade factory and became a full-time musician. Not all band members followed suit, and besides Bouwens, the "Selection" from mid 1970 was formed by Jan Visser, Jan Hop (drums), Jacques Greuter and George Thé (voice, guitar, bass). In March 1971 Jan Visser left the band to be replaced by Cor Veerman. Besides scoring hits with his own Selection, he also wrote songs for others, including BZN, The Shoes, Andy Star, and Next One. In 1974, singer Lida Bond joined the Selection, and combining her voice with Baker's proved highly successful.
The Selection's fifth album, Paloma Blanca, was released in 1975, and the single "Paloma Blanca" reached No. 1 on charts in several countries. By this time Nelleke Brzoskowsky was the singer; she had joined in 1975. "Paloma Blanca" sold more than seven million copies worldwide, making it one of the most successful Dutch singles ever. The band has sold over 20 million records worldwide, but in 1978, Baker disbanded the Selection because "the pressure had become too much." Baker devoted more of his energy to song writing. He spent some time in Spain in the early 80s.
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By 1985 Baker formed a new George Baker Selection, which stayed together until 1989. The second version of the Selection has released twelve albums and several compilation albums. Baker was one of the artists who recorded the song Shalom from Holland (written by Simon Hammelburg and Ron Klipstein) as a token of solidarity to the Israeli people, threatened by missiles from Iraq, during the first Gulf War in 1991.
The Selection experienced a brief return to the international charts in 1992 when the song "Little Green Bag" was used in the title sequence of the film Reservoir Dogs. In 2015, "Little Green Bag" was used in the fadeout of some episodes of series two of the Australian drama Love Child. In 2017, 2018 and 2019 Baker recorded new versions for commercials by Lidl supermarket chainstore.
After he disbanded the Selection in 1978, Baker performed as a solo artist till 1985, when he briefly returned with a new roster of the Selection. In 1989, he returned to solo work. In 2005, he released a remix of the song "Paloma Blanca" for the film Too Fat Too Furious. As a solo artist, he had released nine albums as of early September 2017. He was managed by Jaap Buijs, who died in 2015. George Baker now lives with his wife Blanche near the Dutch town of Gouda and is still performing at various venues. His latest being at the Dorpsfeest In Hoogland, Utrecht, The Netherlands on 19th September 2024.
(Edited from Wikipedia, concert archives.org & Bettylou Music)