The Millionaires were a Dutch pop group founded 1968 best known for their song at the Nationaal Songfestival of 1982, "
Fantasy Island
''Fantasy Island'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by Gene Levitt. It aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984. The series starred Ricardo Montalbán as the mysterious Mr. Roarke and Hervé Villechaize as his assistant, Tattoo. Gu ...
".
Their first major success was the song for the
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...
"Never Give In", written by the Italian singer
Toto Cutugno
Salvatore "Toto" Cutugno (; born 7 July 1943) is an Italian pop singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known for his worldwide hit song, "L'Italiano", released on his 1983 album of the same title. Cutugno also won the Eurovision Song Conte ...
. The single was released under the name of the band's original singer Jay Delmore (Jaap van der Mooren), who died the same year. After Delmore's death the band had two female singers, Carmen Montana and Angela Irrgang. The next major success, "Fantasy Island" , was written by Martin Duiser and
Piet Souer
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Souer (born 29 March 1948, Eindhoven) is a Dutch record producer, songwriter and arranger. His collaboration with acts (such as Luv', Mouth & MacNeal, Liesbeth List, Ramses Shaffy, American Gypsy, and Champagne) made him ga ...
, and released in both Dutch and English versions, but covered again in English by British group
Tight Fit
Tight Fit is an English pop group which had several hits in the early 1980s, including a UK No.1 for three weeks with their cover version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in 1982.
History
In 1981, record producer Ken Gold came up with the idea ...
.
[Jürgen Beck ''Das ultimative Hit Quiz der 80er'' 2012 3849611485 "„Fantasy Island“ war die zweite Hitsingle von Tight Fit. Der Song wurde eigentlich von einer holländischen Band namens The Millionaires gesungen, Tight Fit machten daraus eine #5 in Großbritannien und einen Platz 23 in Deutschland."]
References
Dutch musical groups
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