To tie this all together...
"Golden Earrings" is a song from the 1947 film of the same name and originally sung by Murvyn Vye. It was covered by various artists including the version by The Hunters released during 1961. Around that time a young Dutch group known as The Tornados were themselves covering the song. They became aware that an English group were using their name and chose to call themselves The Golden Earrings. As their popularity grew they dropped the 's' to become Golden Earring.