Venus (Frankie Avalon song)
| "Venus" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Frankie Avalon | ||||
| B-side | "I'm Broke" | |||
| Released | 1959 | |||
| Format | 7" (45 rpm) | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 2:20 | |||
| Label | Chancellor | |||
| Writer(s) |
Ed Marshall Peter DeAngelis | |||
| Frankie Avalon singles chronology | ||||
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"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 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]
Cover versions
- Brad Pitt and Edward Norton recorded a cover version on the set of the 1999 movie Fight Club.
- Johnny Mathis released a cover version of the song in 1968, where it "bubbled under" the Hot 100 chart at #111.
- Barry Manilow also covered the song in 2006 on his album The Greatest Songs of the Fifties.
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)
External links
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