 He began with Ted de Braak and Mini en Maxi and in 1987 he released his first single, "Love Leave Me".Major success eluded him until "Winter in America" entered the Dutch Top 40 in 1988 (10 years after Australian folk Musician Doug Ashdown's original had done so).Later that year, he teamed up with the popular Dutch band Het Goede Doel to top the Dutch charts (#1 for three weeks in 1989) with "Alles kan een mens gelukkig maken" (Everything can make a man happy).