Single:
Venus entered the Australian singles chart* on 5 January 1970 and was a #1 hit. The song was #14 on the Top 100 of 1970.
Songwriter:
Robbie van Leeuwen
Producers:
Robbie van Leeuwen, Jerry Ross
Record label of Australian release:
Penny Farthing
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
Wikipedia:
Venus by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue featured lead vocals performed by Mariska Veres. The music is from The Banjo Song by ‘Tim Rose and the Big 3’ with new lyrics by Robbie van Leeuwen, the band’s guitarist, sitarist and background vocalist, who also produced along with record producer Jerry Ross.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(Shocking_Blue_song)
Songfacts:
The group is from The Netherlands, which led to an interesting translation problem when Shocking Blue lead singer Mariska Veres sang the English lyrics. Van Leeuwen wrote the first line down incorrectly: what was supposed to be “A goddess on the mountain top” he wrote as “A goddness on the mountain top,” and that’s exactly how Veres sang it. Most listeners didn’t notice, and the many cover versions corrected the error, but the result was a #1 hit with a misspoken first line thanks to a typo.
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/shocking-blue/venus
Lyrics:
A goddess on a mountain top
Was burning like a silver flame
The summit of beauty and love
And Venus was her name
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
Find more songs to enjoy: Bang a Gong song finder
New to Bang a Gong? Click HERE to learn more about us.