Songs That Were Covers: Venus

Welcome to another edition of the Songs That Were Covers series on Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts!  I'm Jumpin' John, and in this episode I will briefly review one song that had the unique distinction of, on two different occasions, reaching the #1 position on the US singles charts while being performed by two different non-American bands.  That song is entitled "Venus"!

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
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Transcript

Welcome to another edition of the Songs That Were Covers series on Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts!  I'm Jumpin' John, and in this episode I will briefly review one song that had the unique distinction of, on two different occasions, reaching the #1 position on the US singles charts while being performed by two different non-American bands.  That song is entitled "Venus"!

The Netherlands is famous for many things.  Over the course of history the region is famous for their numerous world renowned painters such as Rembrant, Vermeer, and Van Gogh.  Due to their low lying topography, the Netherlands is also known for their flood control efforts through an elaborate series of dykes and windmills.  Normally they are not known for their rock bands.  However, that would all change in 1969.  That was the year that Shocking Blue released their hit song called "Venus". 

Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band formed in The Hague, Netherlands in 1967.  They were part of the Nederbeat movement in the Netherlands.  Guitarist Robbie van Leeuwen teamed up with singer Fred de Wilde, Klaasje van der Wal, and Cor van der Beek.  With De Wilde as singer, they had a minor hit in 1968 with "Lucy Brown is Back in Town".  Later in 1968 De Wilde joined the Dutch army and left the band.  Robbie Van Leeuwen was introduced to Mariska Veres, who at that time was singing with a club band.  Robbie persuaded Mariska to join the band and take over lead vocals.  Shocking Blue then had two minor hits:  "Send Me a Postcard" in late 1968 and "Long and Lonesome Road" in 1969.  

In Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast episode number 137 I mentioned that Mama Cass Elliot developed her singing chops while singing with a New York City folk trio called The Big 3.  Besides Cass, that trio included singer-songwriter-banjo player Tim Rose and singer-guitarist Jim Hendricks.  In 1963 The Big 3 recorded a song called "The Banjo Song", which Tim Rose had created using lyrics from Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna".  

[Here is The Big 3's version of "The Banjo Song"]

Robbie van Leeuwen was familiar with The Big 3's music and "The Banjo Song" in particular.  Using similar chord progressions to "The Banjo Song", van Leeuwen wrote a new song that he called "Venus".

In 1969 Shocking Blue recorded "Venus" on a two-track machine in Soundpush Studio in Blaricum, the Netherlands with Van Leeuwen producing.  The song's lead vocals were performed by Mariska Veres.  The lyrics, however, contained a typo in the line "A goddess on a mountain top", with "goddess" written as "godness".  So Veres, who was at the time not perfectly fluent in English, sang "godness" on the record and on television.  Later recordings by other artists corrected the word.

"Venus" was issued in the Netherlands in July 1969 as a single, backed with "Hot Sand", on Dureco's Pink Elephant label.  The song initially peaked at #3 on the Dutch Top 40 on July 12th, 1969, and remained at that position for a total of five weeks.  It reached #1 in Belgium, in France, and in Germany, where it sold over 350,000 copies.  Jerry Ross, who was in Europe in the autumn of 1969 looking for European hits for release in the United States, was offered the song.  He signed the Shocking Blue to his newly-created Colossus Records, and chose the record for release in the United States later that year.  "Venus" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 7th, 1970, where it stayed for three weeks.  It was the first song by a Dutch band to reach #1 in the US.  On January 28th, 1970, it was certified gold by the RIAA for sales in excess of one million copies in the United States.  Its success in the United States prompted further interest in other markets around the world in 1970, and it reached #3 again in the Netherlands, as well as #8 in the UK.  The popularity of the song also spurred interests in other Dutch groups.  Since then the single has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.

[Here is Shocking Blue's version of "Venus"]

After the worldwide success of "Venus", Shocking Blue would release several other singles, eventually selling a total of 13 and a half million records by 1973.  Those later songs were successful in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, but they failed to make the charts in the U.S. or U.K.  Klaasje van der Wal left the band towards the end of 1971.  In 1974, Robbie Van Leeuwen quit, and Mariska Veres left later that year, leading to the band's split.  Veres went on to pursue a solo career until 1982.

The song "Venus" has been covered dozens of times by many artists.  But it was a 1986 cover released sixteen years after Shocking Blue's, that would once again reach #1 in the US.

Bananarama is a very successful English pop group formed in London, England in 1980.  The group, originally a trio, consisted of friends Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey, and Keren Woodward.  Bananarama is associated with the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US.  Their eventual success on both pop and dance charts saw them listed in the Guinness World Records for achieving the world's highest number of chart entries by an all-female group.  Between 1983 and 1988 they had eleven singles reaching the US Billboard Hot 100.  Between 1982 and 2009, Bananarama had 32 singles reach the Top 50 of the UK Singles Chart.  

The song "Venus" had been a part of Bananarama's repertoire for several years before they actually recorded it.  The group had nearly completed recording their third studio album, True Confessions, with producers Steven Jolley and Tony Swain.  The group's three members,  Sara, Siobhan, and Keren, had the idea of turning "Venus" into a dance tune, but they were met with resistance from their producers.  So, the group brought the idea to the production trio of Stock Aitken Waterman(also known as SAW).  SAW also initially resisted, but after persistence by the group, SAW relented.  The track was initially produced in an arrangement more faithful to the Shocking Blue original.  However, in December 1985 it was reworked at London's Odyssey studios in hi-NRG, synth pop style.  Hi-NRG is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music that originated during the late 1970's and early 1980's. Hi-NRG is typified by its fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms, reverberated "intense" vocals and "pulsating" octave basslines.  As a music genre, Hi-NRG was particularly influential on the disco scene.

Bananarama's reworked version of "Venus" was released, with "White Train" as the B side, on May 19th, 1986.  Sixteen years after Shocking Blue's version hit #1, Bananarama's version also hit #1 on the Billboard chart.  It also peaked at #1 in Australia, Finland, New Zealand, South Africa, and Switzerland.  Bananrama's "Venus" reached #2 in Germany and the top-ten in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK.  By reaching #8 in the United Kingdom, Bananarama matched the same peak of Shocking Blue's version.  It also topped the US Dance Club Songs chart for two weeks.  The music video for "Venus" would receive heavy airplay on MTV in the United States.

[Here is Bananarama's single cover version of "Venus"]

Thank you for listening to another edition of the Songs That Were Covers series on Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts!  I'm Jumpin' John McDermott, and in this episode I discussed the song "Venus", which twice reached the #1 position on the US singles chart!  And until next time...Rock On!