Shocking Blue
Released in late 1969 as a single from the album At Home, Shocking Blue's single reached 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 U.S., 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 used "The Banjo Song", an arrangement of "Oh! Susanna" on a 1963 album by The Big 3, as his inspiration; the bassline, riffs and melody sound almost exactly the same. However, The Big 3 never claimed plagiarism.
"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 #4 on the UK Singles Chart and #8 in Australia in 1990.
Read more about this topic: Venus (Shocking Blue Song)
Famous quotes containing the words shocking and/or blue:
“Mr. [Christopher] Smart the poet was here yesterday.... This ingenious writer is one of the most unfortunate of men—he has been twice confined in a mad house.... How great a pity so clever, so ingenious a man should be reduced to such shocking circumstances. He is extremely grave, and has still great wildness in his manner, looks and voice—’tis impossible to see him and to think of his works, without feeling the utmost pity and concern for him.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)