Venus - Bananarama

'Venus' was written by Dutch musician Robbie van Leeuwen for his band Shocking Blue, released as a single in late 1969. Bananarama had the song in their live repertoire for a couple of years before they decided to record it. They wanted to turn it into a dance track and brought the idea to producers Stock Aitken Waterman. It became Bananarama's first collaboration with them.

Initially, Stock, Aitken and Waterman also resisted the idea because they believed that 'Venus' would not make a good dance record. The three members of Bananarama persisted, and so they recorded the song. When it was released as a single in the summer of 1986, it went to number 1 in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Mexico and South Africa. In the UK, the single reached number 8 and in the Dutch Top 40 it reached number 4. The collaboration on 'Venus' led Bananarama and SAW to work together on the group's follow-up album 'Wow!' in 1987.

My collection: 7" single no. 4324
Found: Chelsea Records, Antwerpen, December 1, 2009
Cost: 1 euro
Tracks: 'Venus' / 'White train'