Leon de Graaff

Leon de Graaff (Haarlem, 22 February 1950) is a Dutch singer and guitarist. He reached the charts in 1971 with Pittsburgh in the rain. He received his education at the MULO, then went to the HBS and studied physiotherapy for some time. During that time he played the banjo and trumpet in a local dixieland orchestra. The next step was his work for the return division of record label Negram, he moved to Bovema, the Dutch branch of EMI Group. After working for record label Vogue for a short time, he started working at the Capi Lux record store on the Rozengracht in Amsterdam. In his spare time, he played Top 40 tunes at weddings and parties. He enrolled in a Phonogram talent show and won it. He was then allowed to record Pittsburgh in the rain under the direction of Boudewijn de Groot. 10,000 copies of the plate were purchased. Then Phonogram put the brakes on further development, they released two more singles, but that company did nothing about promotion, according to an interview in the Nieuwsblad van het Noorden of 1 March 1974. Yet De Graaf also blamed himself a bit for the stagnation of his musical career. He gave priority to his work at Capi Lux and the festive evenings. Music magazine Muziek Express named him the most promising artist of the year in 1971. In 1971 he appeared in the VARA program Boingk-k-k. In the television program a competition was held who was the best interpreter of the song Manuela by Vader Abraham, who was on the jury together with the original singer Jacques Herb. Rob de Nijs also appeared in the program and Elly de Waard, then a pop critic at De Volkskrant, commented. In 1973 he took part in the song festival in Athens, Greece, saying in the same interview that he was not supported at all by his record label. In 1974 Conny Vandenbos recorded the song Even talk (Clouds) from him, which De Graaff had recorded for his never-released album. In 1976, Mother and daughter (Too bad Anastasia) followed the same principle, Herman Pieter de Boer provided the translation for the latter. Nothing was heard from him after 1974. At the time, he would, strangely enough, have worked at Phonogram until 1985.