Jaap Valkhoff was born on August 16, 1910, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He began playing accordion at age three and performed his first concert at seven but faced parental opposition to pursuing music professionally. In the late 1920s, he discovered nightclubs and learned the tenor saxophone due to jazz's popularity. Valkhoff formed the accordion trio The Three Hawkcourts with his sister Jopie and brother Arie in the late 1920s and released an accordion record on the Decca label in 1937. He began composing songs in the 1940s and joined Accordeola, a radio orchestra, in 1948. Valkhoff opened the Oase Bar with his brother Arie in 1956, where he performed nightly with great success. In 1961, he collaborated with Johnny Hoes on "Hand in hand, kameraden" for the Feyenoord Rotterdam football club, which became a hit. He died in a car accident on July 3, 1992, in Schiedam.
