Venus (Shocking Blue song)

"Venus"
Single by The Shocking Blue from the album At Home
B-side	"Hot Sand"
Released	1969
Format	7" vinyl
Recorded	1969
Genre	Pop / Rock
Length	3:07
Label	Pink Elephant, Metronome, Colossus, Poplandia, Joker, Yugoton
Writer	Robbie van Leeuwen
Producer	Robbie van Leeuwen
The Shocking Blue singles chronology
"Lucy Brown Is Back In Town" (1968) "Venus" (1969) "Mighty Joe" (1969)

"Venus"
Single by Bananarama from the album True Confessions
B-side	"White Train"
Released	May 1986
Format	7" vinyl, 12" vinyl
Recorded	December 1985
Genre	Pop / Dance
Length	3:49
Label	London Records
Writer	Robbie van Leeuwen
Producer	Stock Aitken Waterman
Certification	Gold (RIAA)
Bananarama singles chronology
"Do Not Disturb" (1985) "Venus" (1986) "More Than Physical" (1986) (l.-r.) Dallin, Fahey and Woodward on a picture disc 7-inch single of "Venus", showing images and costumes worn by the trio in the music video.

"Venus" is a song by the Dutch band Shocking Blue, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 7, 1970. RIAA certification came on January 28, 1970 for selling over one million copies in the USA, garnering a gold record award. The song's music and lyrics are written by Robbie van Leeuwen. Van Leeuwen used "The Banjo Man" on the Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod, a 1963 album by The Big 3 with Mama Cass Elliot on vocals as main inspiration.

Covers

Miscellaneous versions

On July 18, 1981, Dutch act Stars on 45 reached number one with a medley which included the opening guitar riff from "Venus" (itself borrowed from The Who's Pinball Wizard.) Five years later, British girl group Bananarama covered the song and likewise scored a major hit worldwide: the song was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of September 6, 1986 and it was also the top single of 1986 in Australia. This makes it the only song in the history of the Billboard charts to hit number one three times (albeit the Stars on 45 song only included a portion of it). In 1990, Italian dance group Don Pablo's Animals scored a UK number-three hit with an instrumental cover version of the song that featured a sample of the original version, and also a sample of James Brown's voice at the beginning saying "We're gonna do a song that you've never heard before", lifted from Brown's 1988 hit "The Payback Mix (Part One)". When auditioning for the Spice Girls in the early '90s, Victoria Beckham recorded a version of the song for a demo tape, never intending for it to actually be released. However, the original recording has since leaked onto the internet. Stefanie Sun (Simplified Chinese: 孙燕姿; Traditional Chinese: 孫燕姿), a Singaporean singer-songwriter, made an album (Start自選集) containing several cover versions, including "Venus", "Hey Jude" and "Silent All These Years" in 2002. The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, Ruslana, has recorded this song. Norwegian act Erlend Øye also recorded part of the song in a medley on his album that was part of the DJ-Kicks series. Japanese singer Hitomi has also covered this song in the "Japanese Girl" single as a B-side in 2005. It was also used as a Gillette Venus razor song, featuring Hitomi herself on a rock of a lagoon in Hawaii. (A different version was also included in North American ads by the same company.) The Russian children's band, Street Magic (Volshebniki Dvora) (Волшебники Двора), released a cover version of the song in 2005 on their album "Hit Parade" (Хит-парад). It's lead vocal were performed by band member, Denis Uzkov (Денис Усков).

Bananarama version

"Venus" had been a part of Bananarama's repertoire for several years before they recorded it. Group members Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey, and Keren Woodward had the idea of turning the song into a dance music tune, but they met with resistance from their producers at the time, Steve Jolley and Tony Swain. Undaunted, the women brought the idea to the production trio of Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW), who had just recently scored a global hit producing Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)". Dallin, Fahey, and Woodward were nearly completed recording their third album True Confessions with Jolley and Swain, and being fans of the Dead or Alive track, they sought out the SAW team in order to make their version of "Venus" sound like "You Spin Me Round". Ironically, Stock, Aitken and Waterman also resisted the idea because they believed that "Venus" would not make a good dance record. After persistence by the women, SAW relented, and the result was a worldwide smash. Bananarama's "Venus" went to number one in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Mexico, and South Africa. It hit number two in Germany and Hong Kong and was a top ten success in Italy, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Venezuela, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and their native UK.

"Venus" advert

The music video to the song received extensive play on MTV across the world and presented Bananarama in various costumes, including a she-devil, a French temptress, a vampiress, and several Grecian goddesses. The video marked a pivotal shift towards a more glamourous and sexual image that contrasted with the tomboyish style of their earlier work.

The collaboration on "Venus" led Bananarama and SAW to work together on the group's follow-up album Wow! the following year. Bananarama has since re-recorded the track for their 2001 album Exotica and it was recently remixed by Marc Almond, with re-recorded vocals, and included on their 2005 album Drama.

TV/Movie occurrences of this song

Shocking Blue version

• included in the film Brady Bunch movie
• included in the film Grumpier Old Men
• included in the film Zonder Zelda
• included in the film Remember The Titans
• Parodied by the Muppets for a television public service announcement about the V-chip and TV ratings.
• Sharon Watts (played by Letitia Dean) sang "Venus" in an episode of EastEnders shortly after its release.
• a Spanish version was played on the Prison Break episode Good Fences.

Bananarama version

• included in the film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
• included in the film American Wedding
• the music video was seen by Beavis and Butthead

Hitomi version

• featured in 2006 commercials for Gillette Venus razors in Japan.

Koda Kumi version

• featured in 2007 commercials for Gillette Venus razors in Japan.

Legacy

The popular Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation, which is known for named each episode after an 80s hit song, named a two part episode after this song.

Charts

Bananarama version