The Shocking Blue -- "Venus" (1969)

A goddess on the mountain top

Was burning like a silver flame

The summit of beauty and love

And Venus was her name

"Venus" doesn't have the greatest lyrics in the world, perhaps, but Robbie van Leeuwen – the founder of the Shocking Blue and the group's chief songwriter – was Dutch, after all.  English wasn't his first language.

Shocking Blue was from the Hague, the third-largest city in the Netherlands, which spawned a number of successful bands.  Think of it as the Dutch equivalent of  Liverpool.  (One other band from Hague was Golden Earring, best known for its 1973 hit, "Radar Love," which virtually compels you to drive really fast when it comes on your car radio.)

Mariska Veres, the Shocking Blue's singer

"Venus" was by far the Shocking Blue's biggest hit, selling about 5 million copies worldwide.  It was released in this country near the end of 1969, and hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1970. 

The song was also a #1 hit for Bananarama in 1986.  Gillette featured the Bananarama version in a number of TV commercials for its "Venus" razors.

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I remember singing along to "Venus" as it played in the Parkwood High School cafeteria my senior year in high school.  Our student council had successfully lobbied the powers-that-be to have a soda dispenser installed in the cafeteria.

A portion of the proceeds from the soft-drink sales were used to buy a big-ass reel-to-reel tape player, which was turned on during lunch period.

I remember a few of the songs featured on that tape player – there was "Touch Me" (the Doors), "Communication Breakdown" (Led Zeppelin), "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (Rolling Stones), and today's featured song.  That's all I've been able to pull so far, but I'm hoping that some of the people who come to my 40th high school reunion later this summer will be able to remember some of the others.

Not surprisingly, when my friends and I sang along to this song, we revised the lyrics.  

Think about it – what rhymes with "Venus"?  (We were 17-year-old boys.  What do you expect?)

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I've owned the Shocking Blue LP that "Venus" appears on for 50 years:

As I recall, I bought it at a really low-budget discount store in my home town called "Grandpa's,"  which made the local Walmart look positively upscale.  It cost 33 cents.

The other albums I got at Grandpa's for 33 cents included The Sir Douglas Quintet ("Mendocino") and Messages from the Status Quo ("Pictures of Matchstick Men").

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Shocking Blue lead singer Mariska Veres – her mother was German, her father was a Hungarian gypsy – died of cancer in 2006.  Click here to view her last TV appearance.

Click here for Bananarama's cover of "Venus."  This is a classic 1980's music video, and it is REALLY bad.

Click here to see the official video of the Shocking Blue lip-synching to "Venus."

Click on the link below to buy "Venus" from Amazon: