VENUS, SHOCKING BLUE, BANANARAMA

(&The STRANGE CONNECTION BETWEEN VENUS, JIMI HENDRIX, &

THE MAMAS AND PAPAS!)
By Alan L. Chrisman
Venus (You Got It) was a #1 hit for Dutch group, Shocking Blue in
1970 and sold 7.5 million copies worldwide. Then in 1986, all-female

band, Bananarama, also had a hit with it again.

S
Shocking Blues guitarist, Robbie van Leeuwen wrote the lyrics and their
singer, Mariska Veres sang the lead. But it has quite an interesting
story. Its an exact copy of a previous 1963 song The Banjo Song by
the folk group, The Big 3. It was actually written by one of its members,
Tim Rose. It contains the same guitar rift, bassline and melody as
Shocking Blues Venus. Rose had also had a local hit with a slowed
down-version of the song, Hey Joe. Keith Richards girlfriend at the
time, had suggested it for Jimi Hendrix to his manager, Chas Chandler
(formerly of The Animals). It had already been recorded by the classic
San Francisco band, Love, and many others, but as a fast version and it
would later become a sort of anti-Vietnam war song in the 60s, Hey
Joe (where you going with that gun?). Hendrix went to see Rose
perform it in a small club in New York and adopted Roses angry

sloweddown version and Hendrixs became the most famous version.

But also out of that short-lived folk group, The Big 3, was also to come
Cass Elliot (Mama Cass) of the Mamas and The Papas along with Jim
Hendricks (not Jimi Hendrix) who wrote Johnny Rivers hit, Summer
Rain. John Phillips, leader of the Mamas and the Papas, was earlier
in a band with Tim Rose. Phillips was then in The Journeymen with Scott
McKenzie who sang the hippie anthem, San Francisco (wear flowers
in your hair) which Phillips wrote.
John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky (Canadian) late rof The Lovin
Spoonful, were in a related folk band with later Papa, Denny Doherty (
another Canadian) of the time called The Mugwumps. This convoluted
story of these later famous musicians connections is recounted in the

Mamas and Papas song, Creeque Alley.

So there is a strange connection between the song Venus and Jimi

Hendrix and The Mamas and The Papas!
Shocking Blue doing their 1970 hit, Venus:
http://youtu.be/8LhkyyCvUHk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LhkyyCvUHk
Hey Joe, slowed-down 1967 Tim Rose version which Hendrix
electrified:
http://youtu.be/u9Fe1kR-xvw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Fe1kR-xvw
The Mamas and the Papas, Creeque Alley, in which they describe
above mentioned musicians early connections:
http://youtu.be/_E3VqmyNgVU?list=PL6B825E13E2587863

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E3VqmyNgVU&list=PL6B825E1
3E2587863