Venus (Shocking Blue song)

Background

Released in late 1969 as a single from the group's third album Scorpio's Dance (later also on reissues of the second album At Home), Shocking Blue's single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 7 February 1970. RIAA certification came on 28 January 1970 for selling over one million copies in the US, garnering a gold record. Worldwide, the single sold over 7.5 million copies.

The song's lead vocals are performed by Mariska Veres. The song's music and lyrics are written by Robbie van Leeuwen, the band's guitarist, sitarist and background vocalist, who also produced along with record producer Jerry Ross. Van Leeuwen originally miswrote the line "...the goddess on the mountain top..." as "...the godness on the mountain top...". This was corrected in later versions. The Hohner electric piano on the release was played by Cees Schrama.

Van Leeuwen was inspired by "The Banjo Song", a composition by Tim Rose that set Stephen Foster's lyrics to "Oh! Susanna" to a completely new melody.

"Venus" was remixed and re-released by dance producers The BHF (Bisiach Hornbostel Ferrucci) Team in May 1990, scoring the group a Top 10 hit in the UK and Australia 21 years after the release of the original. The remix featured a hip house rhythm and samples. An instrumental version was also released independently under the producer's alias "Don Pablo's Animals". The instrumental version (credited only to Don Pablos Animals – without referencing Shocking Blue) became the highest charting version of the song. The single began with a sample from James Brown's 1988 hit "The Payback Mix (Part One)". This release of "Venus" peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart and number 8 in Australia in 1990.

In advertising

In film

The song has been used in several films:

In music

Background

"Venus" had been a part of Bananarama's repertoire for several years before they actually recorded it. The team's three members, Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey, and Keren Woodward, had the idea of turning the song into a dance music tune, but they were met with resistance from their producers at the time, Steve Jolley and Tony Swain. Bananarama brought the idea to the production trio of Stock Aitken Waterman, and it became Bananarama's first collaboration with them.

Dallin, Fahey, and Woodward had nearly completed recording their third album, titled True Confessions, with Jolley and Swain. 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 US, 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, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and their native UK (number 8 on UK Singles Chart). It also went to number one for two weeks on the US Dance chart.

The collaboration on "Venus" led Bananarama and SAW to work together on the group's follow-up album Wow! the following year.

A new mix of the track appeared as b-side to the 1989 limited release "Megarama '89" in Germany and France. Bananarama has since re-recorded the track for their 2001 album Exotica and it was later remixed by Marc Almond, with re-recorded vocals, and included on their 2005 album Drama.

Music video

The music video for the song received extensive play on MTV and video channels across the world, and presented Bananarama in various costumes, including a she-devil, a French temptress, a vampiress, and several Grecian goddesses. In one sequence of the video, The Birth of Venus, the painting by Sandro Botticelli, was reenacted. The video marked a pivotal shift towards a more glamorous and sexual image for the girls that contrasted with the tomboyish style in their earlier work. Choreography by Bruno Tonioli. Music video directed by Peter Care.

Track listings

UK: London Records NANA 10 / USA: London Records 886-056-7 / Canada: London Records LDS 227 / Australia: Liberation Records LS 1789

1. "Venus" 3:30
2. "White Train" 3:50

+ some copies released in picture disc format NANPD 10

UK: London Records NANX 10 / Canada: Liberation Records LMD 474

1. "Venus" (Extended version) 7:23
2. "Venus" (Dub) 8:15
3. "White Train" 3:50

London Records NANXR 10

1. "Venus" (The Hellfire Mix) 9:20 #:Remixed by Ian Levine
2. "Venus" (Hellfire Dub) 6:55
3. "White Train" 3:50

London Records NAXRR 10

1. "Venus" (The Fire And Brimstone Mix) 6:35 #:Remixed by Stock, Aitken & Waterman
2. "Venus" (Hellfire Dub) 6:55
3. "White Train" 3:50

London Records 886 088-1

1. "Venus" (The Hellfire Mix) 9:20
2. "Venus" (The Fire & Brimstone mix) 6:55
3. "Venus" (Extended version) 7:23
4. "Venus" (Dub) 8:25

1. "Venus" (Extended version) 7:23
2. "True Confessions" (Edit) 4:09
3. "A Trick of the Night" (Edit) 4:07
4. "More Than Physical" (UK Single version) 3:40

1. "Venus" (The Greatest Remix Edit) 3:40
2. "Venus" (The Greatest Remix) 7:43
3. "Venus" (2001 version)
4. "Venus" (Marc Almond's Hi-NRG Showgirls mix) 6:02
5. "Venus" (From Soundtrack Sugar & Spice: Stuck in the 80's)

Personnel

Additional personnel

Other versions

Sampling

"Shizgarah", or "Venus" in Russian urban folklore

Despite the fact that the heavily controlled Soviet mass media totally ignored much of Western popular culture, the Shocking Blue song quickly become a popular hit in 1970s Russia, especially among street youth akin to Western hippie and "hooligan" subcultures. Due to the song's simple arrangement and danceable rhythm, "Venus" was adopted and performed by thousands of underground amateur performers, both those who accompanied themselves on acoustic guitar and full contemporary bands who performed it with electric guitar at dance parties. Thus, the English language song of a Dutch band become a prominent phenomenon of Russian urban folklore and was considered by many an unofficial "anthem of the generation".

The English language in the song, however, was only very loosely approximated, and the song was not even known by its title, "Venus". A countless number of variants of Russian lyrics existed for this song, but traditionally it was performed using gibberish or scat singing phonetically inspired by the sounds of original English lyrics which had become hardly intelligible after being passed along via repeated duplicate copying on cheap, low-end tape recorders. In the Russian variant, the first line of the chorus, "She's got it", was usually pronounced as "Shizgarah" ("Шизгáра") [sheez-GA-rah], and it was this word which became a commonly adopted name of the song in the USSR, even among those who could understand the original English text.

In modern times, a few disco clubs and a musical show on Nashe Radio are named "Shizgarah" after this song.

Also, "Shizgarah" ("Шизгара") is a novel of Russian writer Sergey Soloukh portraying the life of young Soviet hippies in the 1970s.