lion started his musical career as singer of "johnny and his jewels", later named "the jumping jewels". they had a number-one hitsingle in the netherlands with "wheels" in 1961. he left the band in 1965 to focus on a solo career and subsequently delivered hitsingles "sophietje", "tjingeling" and "alleen in dallas". sophietje was a dutch translation of swedish song "fröken fräken" and dedicated to lion's then-girlfriend sophie van kleef.