Piet Souer

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Piet Souer is a Dutch producer, songwriter and arranger, born in 1948. He began as a guitarist and keyboard player with The Valiants, a rock band from Eindhoven. His breakthrough came when he played guitar on De troubadour by Lenny Kuhr, the winner of the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest. A year later, with Kuhr and the bassist Paul Reekers, he was the support act for Georges Brassens on his tour of France.

Music and breakthrough

In the early 1970s he wrote and arranged hits such as Te veel te vaak by Liesbeth List and Samen by Liesbeth List and Ramses Shaffy. After that he produced for Champagne, Mouth & MacNeal, Anita Meyer and American Gypsy, among others, and worked with international artists such as Vicky Leandros and Engelbert Humperdinck. In 1976, with the producer Hans van Hemert and the manager Han Meijer, he formed the girl trio Luv'. Souer and Van Hemert wrote the songs under the pseudonyms Janschen and Janschens, including You're the Greatest Lover, Trojan Horse and Casanova. In 1982 Tight Fit reached the top five in Britain with his song Fantasy Island.

Influence

Souer wrote two Eurovision songs, Sing Me a Song in 1983 and De eerste keer in 1996, which both finished seventh. He also composed a great deal of film music and television jingles, including for Suske en Wiske, Spoorloos and the Dutch version of Lingo. He received twenty-two gold and platinum records. His work shows how much Dutch pop music of the 1970s and 1980s came out of the studio.

Listening