# Radar Love

"Radar Love" is a 1973 song by Dutch rock band Golden Earring. The single version of "Radar Love" reached No. 9 on the Record World chart, No. 10 on Cash Box, and No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. It hit the top 10 in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom singles chart, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Spain. In 2005, British TV-show Top Gear declared it the second greatest driving song of all time.

## Lyrics

The song is written from the point of view of a man who has some sort of psychic connection with his lover — "radar love". He senses that she urgently wants him to be with her, and in his haste he drives recklessly, causing a fatal accident, but even in the afterlife the song's narrator and his lover still have radar love.

## Composition

Like other famous songs of the era — "Highway Star", "Stairway to Heaven", "Bohemian Rhapsody" — "Radar Love" is composed as a suite with several distinctive and quite different sections, although the tonality throughout remains similar.
The intro starts with a guitar riff in four separated phrases, consisting respectively of three, three, five and three notes. The first phrase is up from C♯ minor with three power chords slightly reminiscent of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water". The second phrase heads down, the third is up again, higher than the previous, and the fourth leads all down to E major. According to Golden Earring bass player Rinus Gerritsen, the intro was inspired by Carlos Santana.
During the chorus, starting in C♯ minor at 1:20, the band is joined by a brass section.
The song references Brenda Lee's "Coming On Strong" from 1966 as a "forgotten song".

## Impact

According to Rustyn Rose at Metalholic, the song "is a rock masterpiece, from its hooky chugging bassline, to its simple but unmistakable riffs, to its catchy anthemesque chorus. Even the jam which rides the song out is note for note classic."
The song has been chosen by many magazines and websites as a Top 10 driving song, often ranking in the top three. It was chosen as the best radio song by readers of the Washington Post in November 2001. It was the #1 driving song in Australia (Australian Musician, November 2005), beating two AC/DC songs; and in Canada (BBC Canada, March 2006). In 2011 it received a vast number of votes as the "Ultimate Driving Song" in a poll on PlanetRock and "finished well ahead of its nearest rival, Deep Purple's 'Highway Star'."
The bassline, guitar improv, and drum solo riff was used in the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of the opening credits and theme to the long running Australian current affairs programme Four Corners produced by ABC before it segues into the official theme, Robert Maxwell's "Lost Patrol".

## Cover versions and Radar-Love.net

According to the radar-love.net TimeTravel, the song has been covered more than 800 times by, among others, Tribe 8, Ministry, Omen, U2, R.E.M., Ian Stuart Donaldson, Sun City Girls, Dutch group Centerfold, White Lion, Blue Man Group, Def Leppard, James Last, NWOBHM band Aragorn, Nine Pound Hammer, Oh Well, Joe Santana, the Space Lady, and the Pressure Boys. White Lion's version charted at #59 on the Hot 100.
Goth-pop band Ghost Dance recorded a cover of the song on the B-side of their 1986 "Heart Full of Soul" single, itself a cover of the Yardbirds track which were then included on their 1988 compilation album Gathering Dust.
A pre-Mercyful Fate band featuring King Diamond on vocals recorded a cover of the song. It is featured on the 2001 compilation album King Diamond & Black Rose 20 Years Ago.
WaveGroup Sound covered the White Lion version of the song in the 2007 video game Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s.
On August 25, 2023 the biography of the song, Radar Love 50 jaar - Biography of the Ultimate Drivin' Song, was released in the Netherlands. The book (in Dutch) captures the amazing TimeTravel of the song in 248 pages.

## In popular culture

The song has been featured in several films including The Private Eyes (1976), Wayne's World 2 (1993), Detroit Rock City (1999), Baby Driver (2017), and The Tender Bar (2021).
It was a central piece in the 2007 Reaper series episode 7 "Love, Bullets & Blacktop", being featured on an 8-track cartridge.
Top Gear included Radar Love in its Greatest Driving Songs list in 2005. Despite host Jeremy Clarkson declaring it as his favourite early on, Radar Love came second to Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, beating outstanding entries from Meat Loaf, Steppenwolf and Deep Purple.

## Certifications

| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | Silver | 250,000$^^$ |
| $^^$ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |||