You’ve probably never heard of him but you have heard him countless times if you had an AM radio in the early 1980s. He comes in at the 1:30 mark of the “Stars on 45” hit single as the voice of John Lennon, a song that topped charts around the world when it was released in 1981. He’s Bas Muys – Dutch singer, songwriter, guitarist and famously unknown guy. Though that’s not for lack of trying.

His first break came when his 1970s band Smyle climbed the Dutch charts with the Beatlesque single “It’s Gonna Be Alright” in 1972. Listeners heard echoes of the mid-1960s Nederbeat (Dutch Merseybeat) sound on the track so the record company deliberately obscured the band’s identity in a pre-Klattu bit of Fab Four misdirection. Smyle sputtered after just a few singles and Muys spend the rest of the seventies doing studio work. Of course that paid off big time when the Stars on 45 project took off. Hoping to cash in on that success he got to release a single under his own name in 1981 called “Oh Terry.” The song is so eerily spot-on Lennon vocally, nailing his falsetto and the more tender side of his delivery while the tune has a melodic bass line reminiscent of “Help.” With better promotion it might have caught on, given the strong appetite for Lennon-esque material in the wake of his death. Muys recorded a whole album to go with the song but his record company failed to release it at the time. Still, he did manage to put out a different LP a year later entitled Lennon and McCartney (Never Issued), later retitled Lennon and McCartney: Secret Songs. The album features Muys doing very Beatles versions of a host of songs Lennon and McCartney had written for other acts in the early 1960s. Sometimes the results hardly differ from the originals, like the cover of “Bad To Me” (a hit for Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas). But others like “From a Window” and “I’m In Love” really polish up nicely.

Muys’ long lost 1981 album Hold On finally got a release date in 2022, complete with live concert and some media attention in his native Holland. But it really deserves a wider audience. The record alternates between Lennon’s 1970s soft rock vibe and a strong Beatles 65 flavour. The ‘guitar’ version of “Lovely Single Angel” really captures the latter.

Bas Muys is the anonymous guy with an immediately recognizable voice. He could stand to get more attention for his work on its own terms. You can visit basmuys.com to help get that started.