AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Shocking Blue

Artist:Shocking Blue
Song:Venus
Album:Then: Totally Oldies 1





Shocking Blue was very popular in their home country The Netherlands. But here they are best known for the 1970 chart topper Venus. They're not really a one hit wonder though that's how they are perceived by most music fans. The group was led by guitarist and songwriter Robbie Van Leeuwen (born Oct. 29, 1944 in The Hague, Netherlands). He was a member of the 60s Nederbeat group The Motions. He left in 1966 and formed Shocking Blue with singer Fred de Wilde, bassist Klaasje van der Wal and drummer Cor van der Beek. They had a minor hit in 1968 with Lucy Brown Is Back In Town. When de Wilde left to join the Army, he was replaced by Mariska Veres (born Oct. 10, 1947 in The Hague, Netherlands). Mariska started out with The Mysteres in 1964 and was in several other groups. Obviously the change to a bombshell female lead singer caught the interest of their international distributor Polydor. They assigned veteran producer Jerry Ross to work with the band and Venus was the result. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970 and was a worldwide smash. Though some people assume the guitar riff is based on The Who's Pinball Wizard, van Leeuwen says the song was based on the 1963 song The Banjo Song by the folk group The Big Three. That song is actually based on Oh Susanna. Of course The Big Three later became The Mamas and The Papas. Though Venus was Shocking Blue's only US hit, they continued to have a lot of success in Europe, South America and Asia until Mariska left for a solo career in 1974 and Shocking Blue split up. She had success in Europe until her death on Dec. 2, 2006 at age 59. van Leeuwen led the group Galaxy-Lin and moved to Luxembourg. Shocking Blue reunited a couple of times. But after the British girl group Bananarama had a huge hit with a cover of Venus, van Leeuwen didn't wan't to perform Venus anymore. Apparently he thought they ruined it. It made him a lot of money so he shouldn't complain. You can get Venus on this budget various artists comp from Varese. Here's the video for Venus by Shocking Blue.