The Blue Diamonds were a Dutch 1960s doo-wop duo, best known for their million-selling chart-topping single, "Ramona". Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) brothers Ruud de Wolff (12th May 1941 – 18th December 2000) and Riem de Wolff (born 15th April, 1943) founded the group shortly after immigrating to the Netherlands in 1949. They were born in Batavia (now Jakarta), Indonesia.
Called the 'Dutch 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 #72. 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.
Although their last hit was in 1971, they continued to perform together up until Ruud de Wolff died at the end of year 2000. Riem de Wolff continues to perform and release albums.
Famous quotes containing the words blue and/or diamonds:
“The old brown hen and the old blue sky,
Between the two we live and die
The broken cartwheel on the hill.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“I always see those of whom I have heard well with a slight disappointment. They are so much better than the great herd, and yet the heavens are not shivered into diamonds over their heads.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)