Venus (Frankie Avalon song)
| "Venus" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "I'm Broke" |
"Venus" is a song written by Ed Marshall and Peter DeAngelis. The most successful and best-known recording of the track was done by Frankie Avalon and released in 1959 (see 1959 in music).
Background
Venus became Avalon's first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it spent five weeks atop the survey. The song also reached number ten on the R&B chart. The song's lyrics detail a man's plea to Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, to send him a girl to love and one who will love him as well. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song for 1959.[1]
The song was covered in the United Kingdom by Dickie Valentine who spent a week at number 20 in the Singles Chart in May 1959, the week before Frankie Avalon reached the Top 20 with his original version.
In 1976, Avalon released a new disco version of "Venus". This helped revive the singer's career, as his success had been waning prior to its release and was Avalon's last Billboard Hot 100 hit. The re-recording of "Venus" peaking at number forty-six and at number one on the Easy Listening chart.[2] Avalon was quoted describing the remake: "It was all right, but I still prefer the original."[3]
Versions
In 1959, Gloria Lasso released a Spanish version. In 1992, she released a new special version.
Cover versions
- Johnny Mathis released a cover version of the song in 1968, where it "bubbled under" the Hot 100 chart at #111.
See also
- List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1959 (U.S.)
- List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1976 (U.S.)
References
- ^ Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1959
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 25.
- ^ Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications)