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Frank Boeijen

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Frank Boeijen was born on 27 November 1957 in Nijmegen, the youngest in a Catholic family of ten children. Through his older brothers he got to know the music of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. In 1977 he released an album independently with the guitarist Wout Pennings, which was later re-recorded under the direction of Rob de Nijs.

Music and breakthrough

In 1979 he founded the Frank Boeijen Groep, which performed for the first time on 3 November of that year at the Nijmegen youth centre Doornroosje. The debut album appeared in 1981, with the single Transport uit Bangkok. The breakthrough came in 1983 with the album 1001 Hotel and the Motown-influenced hit Linda. After that came Zwart wit (1984) and Kronenburg Park (1985), about a prostitute in the Nijmegen park, with backing vocals by Mai Tai. In the second half of the 1980s the group, with fewer synthesizers and a little saxophone, made a trilogy of albums and played in theatres instead of clubs, which was unusual at the time. In 1991 Boeijen disbanded the group.

Influence

The Frank Boeijen Groep belonged to the wave of Dutch-language pop music in the 1980s and made new wave in their own language. Boeijen wrote poetic, often melancholy lyrics to melodic music somewhere between pop and chanson. As a solo artist he continued to tour in the Netherlands and Belgium afterwards and made many more albums. In 2005 he received an Edison for his contribution to Dutch music.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Kronenburg Park (1985). Notice how Boeijen tells the story of a woman in the park in a restrained way, and the backing vocals of the girl group Mai Tai in the chorus.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Mentioned in other articles

Categories: Artists