Peter Slaghuis (; 21 August 1961 – 5 September 1991) was a Dutch DJ,

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

and remixer, whose work was mostly released under the name Hithouse (a literal translation of his last name — ''slag'', a hit, a beat; and ''huis'', house).

Biography

Slaghuis was born in

Rijswijk Rijswijk (), formerly known as Ryswick ( ) in English, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Its population was in , and it has an area of , of which is water. The municipality also includes t ...

, Netherlands. Not much is known about his personal life, but he was a figure in the European

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...

scene in the 1980s, producing popular remixes of various hits (most notably the "Long Vocal Dutch Mix" of " I Can't Wait" by

Nu Shooz Nu Shooz is an American R&B group fronted by husband-and-wife team of John Smith and Valerie Day, based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Nu Shooz released four albums in the U.S. during the 1980s. Their third album, '' Poolside'', brought t ...

). Slaghuis stated "I hated that song so much... I just had to put a hook over it." With the arrival of house music in Europe, Slaghuis took up the pseudonym Hithouse and began using his sampling techniques in this field. His best known work, "Jack to the Sound of the Underground", reached No. 14 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in 1988 and number 57 in Australia. His next few works did not attain the same level of success, though "Jack to the Sound of the Underground" remained in public consciousness in the UK when used as the theme for both the radio and television versions of the BBC comedy show ''

The Mary Whitehouse Experience The ''Mary Whitehouse Experience'' was a British topical sketch comedy show produced by the BBC in association with Spitting Image Productions. It starred two comedy double acts, one being David Baddiel and Rob Newman, the other Steve Punt an ...

''. He was also known for being part of the

Euro disco Eurodisco (also spelled as Euro disco) is the variety of European forms of electronic dance music that evolved from disco in the late 1970s, incorporating elements of pop and rock into a disco-like continuous dance atmosphere. Many Eurodisco ...

music project VideoKids, which released several hit songs such as " Woodpeckers from Space" and "Do the Rap", in 1985, featuring Slaghuis in the

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

alongside Bianca and Tico, the other member and the goofy cartoon mascot. The band only lasted up until his death. By the time 1988 came, the whole project was virtually gone, and there has not been any sales on their music since that period. Slaghuis also delivered remixes to the

Disco Mix Club Disco Mix Club is primarily a remix label under (British Phonographic Industry) licence, which is not intended for the mass market but rather exclusively for professional DJs and enthusiasts. The Disco Mix Club sells megamixes and remixes every m ...

which published them on their monthly CDs and compilation CDs. One of his most famous mixes was Madonna's "

La Isla Bonita "La Isla Bonita" is a song by American singer Madonna from her third studio album '' True Blue'' (1986). Written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard, with additional lyrics by Bruce Gaitsch, the song was originally presented by Leonard ...

". He also remixed

Petula Clark Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer. She has one of the longest serving careers of a British singer, spanning more than seven decades. Clark's professional career began during the ...

's "Downtown" as " Downtown '88" which hit the British top 10 in December 1988. He died in 1991 in a head-on car accident involving a tractor trailer truck while he was driving home from a concert.

References

External links

Memorial website operated by his mother
''(Dutch / English). This seems no longer active.''
Memorial website operated by his mother
''(Dutch / English). The last sep 11 2019 archived version of the above site on archive.org.''
Biography at DISCOGS.com
''(English)'' 1961 births 1991 deaths Dutch dance musicians Dutch DJs Dutch record producers People from Rijswijk Remixers Road incident deaths in the Netherlands {{Netherlands-bio-stub