Peak
1
Weeks
14
Score
3,634
Chart Year
1970
The accompanying music video, directed by Peter Care and choreographed by Bruno Tonioli, was extensively aired on MTV and video channels across the world, and presented the trio in various costumes, including a she-devil, a French temptress, a vampiress and several Greek goddesses. In one sequence of the video, Sandro Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus is adapted as a tableau vivant. The video marked a pivotal shift towards a more glamorous and sexual image for the group that contrasted with the tomboyish style of their earlier work. In the music video there's a cameo of the Polish-German dancer Andreas Wisniewski, who appears as a dancer during the synth solo
The group's guitarist Robbie Van Leeuwen wrote this song. 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. The female vocal trio Bananarama recorded this in 1986. It was one of the first songs they started performing when they formed the band in 1979, but they wanted to record original songs first so they would be taken seriously. Their version was produced by the team of Stock, Aitken and Waterman, who worked on hits by Rick Astley ("Never Gonna Give You Up"), Dead or Alive ("You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)") and Kylie Minogue ("I Should Be So Lucky"). The distinctive guitar riff was taken from The Who's "Pinball Wizard." This was produced by Jerry Ross, who also produced another Dutch group, Tee Set, who performed "Ma Belle Amie". Ross also produced an album of orchestral arrangements of his (primarily) Dutch stable of hits, under the name Jerry Ross Symposium. >> In the US, both this and the Bananarama cover version reached #1, making it one of the few songs to do so. Strangely, in the UK both Shocking Blue and Bananarama reached #8 with "Venus" and both spent 13 weeks on the chart with the song. >> On an episode of the MTV cartoon Beavis And Butthead, Butthead makes up his own lyrics to this but gets frustrated when he can't think of anything that rhymes with "Venus." In Shocking Blue's home country, this never made it to #1. After its success in the States, the song was re-released, but climbed no further that #3 on the Dutch pop chart. In 1959, Frankie Avalon had a US #1 hit with the same title. There were two other instances of different songs with identical titles reaching #1 on the Billboard charts. "My Love" was #1 for Petula Clark in 1966 and another "My Love" turned the trick for McCartney & Wings in 1973. Then "Best Of My Love" topped the charts for the Eagles in 1973 and a different song of the same title was #1 for The Emotions in 1977. >> In the 1988 Full House episode "But Seriously Folks," DJ and Kimmy, influenced by Bananarama, start a band and attempt to learn "Venus."
A goddess on a mountain top Was burning like a silver flame The summit of beauty and love And Venus was her name She's got it Yeah baby, she's got it Well, I'm your Venus I'm your fire at your desire Well, I'm your Venus I'm your fire at your desire Her weapons were her crystal eyes Making every man mad Black as the dark night she was Got what no one else had Wow She's got it Yeah baby, she's got it Well, I'm your Venus I'm your fire at your desire Well, I'm your Venus I'm your fire at your desire (Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah) (Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah) She's got it Yeah baby, she's got it Well, I'm your Venus I'm your fire at your desire Well, I'm your Venus I'm your fire at your desire
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dec 13, 1969 | 77 | 49 |
| 2 | Dec 20, 1969 | 31 | 95 |
| 3 | Dec 27, 1969 | 19 | 107 |
| 4 | Jan 3, 1970 | 8 | 118 |
| 5 | Jan 10, 1970 | 6 | 120 |
| 6 | Jan 17, 1970 | 2 | 124 |
| 7 | Jan 24, 1970 | 2 | 124 |
| 8 | Jan 31, 1970 | 2 | 124 |
| 9 | Feb 7, 1970 | 1 | 125 |
| 10 | Feb 14, 1970 | 4 | 122 |
| 11 | Feb 21, 1970 | 9 | 117 |
| 12 | Feb 28, 1970 | 10 | 116 |
| 13 | Mar 7, 1970 | 18 | 108 |
| 14 | Mar 14, 1970 | 28 | 98 |