B-side "I'm Broke" Format 7" (45 rpm) Length 2:20 | Released February 1959 Genre Pop Label Chancellor | |
"Venus" is a song written by Ed Marshall and Peter DeAngelis. The most successful and best-known recording of the track was done by Frankie Avalon and released in 1959 (see 1959 in music).
Contents
Background
Venus became Avalon's first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it spent five weeks atop the survey. The song also reached number ten on the R&B chart. The song's lyrics detail a man's plea to Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, to send him a girl to love and one who will love him as well. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song for 1959.
The song was covered in the United Kingdom by Dickie Valentine who spent a week at number 20 in the Singles Chart in May 1959, the week before Frankie Avalon reached the Top 20 with his original version.
In 1976, Avalon released a new disco version of "Venus". This helped revive the singer's career, as his success had been waning prior to its release and was Avalon's last Billboard Hot 100 hit. The re-recording of "Venus" peaking at number forty-six and at number one on the Easy Listening chart. Avalon was quoted describing the remake: "It was all right, but I still prefer the original."
Versions
In 1959, Gloria Lasso released a Spanish version. In 1992, she released a new special version.
Cover versions
Use in popular media
The song is featured prominently throughout the fourth season of the American crime drama Dexter, where it is a favoured song of the Trinity Killer, the main antagonist of the season.
This song is also featured in the 2016 drama/sci-fi film 10 Cloverfield Lane.
Parodies
A parody of the song titled "Penis", was sung in a duet by Edward Norton and Brad Pitt in the 1999 film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club.