One of my favorite songs from the 1970s is “Venus” by Shocking Blue, a Dutch rock band that formed in The Hauge in 1967.
Venus
topped the charts in several countries in 1970.
Shocking Blue was notable for being one of the first Dutch bands to
achieve international success, paving the way for other Dutch acts like Golden
Earring and Focus.
Among
the more interesting facts about the song Venus is that the vocalist, Mariska
Veres, could not speak English at this time and was singing phonetically. This led to a mistake that still stands on the
popular original recording.
According
to Songfacts: “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.”
Listen
carefully to the first line sung on the video I have posted and then enjoy the
rest of the ride.
—Mitchell
Hegman
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