Career
The Havenzangers (then consisting of Henk Pleket and Willem Mulder) split up in 2007, and Pleket continued solo. The band was started by singer and guitarist Henk Pleket (born in Arnhem, May 16, 1937), who sang at weddings and parties in the mid-1970s with a group called El Mondo Combo. In 1977, he renamed them De Havenzangers, and their first single, "Aan het strand stil en verlaten," was an immediate hit.
Their debut album (with the same title) sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
In the 1990s, legal and financial trouble plagued the group, and Pleket was court-ordered to repay a large sum of money to the group"s booking agency. By the early 2000s, the group consisted solely of Pleket and Willem Mulder, and stopped performing in 2008.
One of their last recordings was a song by Dutch rapper Def Rhymz ("Schudden"), who in turn covered their first hit, ""s Nachts na tweeën." In 2009, because of Pleket"s failing health, Pleket quit altogether—at that time, he was performing solo, as Havenzanger Henk Pleket. He participated in the Dutch television show De Afvallers in 2007, and died on October 23, 2011 of cancer.
