Background
David Gijsbert van der Linden, the son of a salesman of musical instruments, was born in Vlaardingen, near Rotterdam.
David Gijsbert van der Linden, the son of a salesman of musical instruments, was born in Vlaardingen, near Rotterdam.
Before World World War II, he played in some different bands as a pianist and tried his hand at arranging music for these bands. His colleagues started calling him "Dolf", because he reminded them of a former colleague with that name. In 1945, he was asked by Dutch authorities who had arrived back from their exile in London to form an orchestra for light music
Picking musicians he knew from all over the Netherlands, he thus managed to create the Metropole Orchestra.
Famous names from these early years were Benny Behr, Sem Nijveen (both violinists), Kees Verschoor (clarinetist) and Manny Oets (pianist). In 1957, van der Linden conducted the winning Dutch entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, "Net als toen", sung by Corry Brokken.
In the year after, he and his orchestra accompanied the Eurovision Song Contest which was organised by Dutch television in Hilversum. Afterwards, he was asked by, amongst others, the British Broadcasting Corporation to do some work for them.
All in all, between 1957 and 1971, van der Linden conducted 13 Dutch Eurovision entries, amongst which two winners (in 1957 and 1959 - the latter song, "Een beetje", written by the pianist of his orchestra, Dick Schallies).
In 1969 he refused to go to the Eurovision Song Contest in Spain, because the Franco regime reminded him too much of his experiences in World World War World War II Frans de Kok stepped in and was lucky enough to accompany what turned out to be another winning entry, "De troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr. In the 1970s, Dolf van der Linden tried to rejuvenate and modernise his orchestra. In 1980, he retired and his successor as chief conductor of the Metropole Orchestra was Rogier van Otterloo.
In 1999, van der Linden died in Hilversum.