It is a song that became a monster hit, but can you remember the name of the band? It was number one in Australia today in 1970 and conquered the charts in nine other countries. The song Venus has been used in ads and was even famously covered by The Muppets.
While the Bananarama version from 1986 has many thinking it was their song there is a dedicated fan base that knows that it was a big hit for the Dutch band Shocking Blue.
The song was written by the guitar player and backup singer of Shocking Blue, Robbie van Leeuwen. However, it was the powerful and captivating voice of lead singer Mariska Veres that made the song iconic.
The song was originally a b-side but became so popular that it was eventually re-released as a single. This re-release was good for the band as originally Robbie van Leeuwen had miswritten a lyric. Instead of “goddess of the mountain top,” he had written “goodness of the mountain top which was in the original recording. It is hard to find the original, but it must still exist, and you can probably still find a copy in a dusty record store somewhere.