The Cats were a Dutch pop band formed in Volendam in 1964 by Cees Veerman, Piet Veerman, Jaap Schilder, and Arnold Mühren, with drummer Theo Klouwer joining shortly after. Beginning as The Mystic Four and then The Blue Cats, they became The Cats in 1964. Their debut single, "Juke-box", introduced them to Dutch audiences, though it was the band's 1968 switch to Piet Veerman on lead vocals that produced a string of Top 10 hits, several of them written by Arnold Mühren, including "Lea", "Why?", "Scarlet Ribbons", and "Marian". The single "One Way Wind" topped the Swiss charts, sold over a million copies in Germany, and was released in 38 countries, later covered by about 150 artists. The group toured internationally, performing in Suriname, the Netherlands Antilles, Guyana, and Indonesia, and released albums such as Katzenspiele, The Love in Your Eyes, and Hard to Be Friends. Vocal strain caused Cees Veerman to take breaks, and after returning to the stage in 1975 following a touring hiatus, the band disbanded in 1979, issuing a farewell single in 1980. Members pursued solo work: Cees Veerman released Another Side of Me (1976) and later performed with the Cats Aglow Band; Piet Veerman had a solo hit with "Sailing Home" (1987) and performed "Westenwind" with Dana Winner in the mid-1990s. In 2006 the band was honored as Members of the Order of Orange-Nassau, and a reunion single reached gold status.
