In the 1970s, three remakes of No. 1 songs found their way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts again. In 1971, 13-year-old Donny Osmond remade a Gerry Goffin/Carole King classic first done by Steve Lawrence and hit No. 1 with it again, "Go Away Little Girl." In 1974, another Goffin-King classic, first done by the duo's baby-sitter at the time in 1962, Little Eva, got louder and bolder when Grand Funk took it to the top, "The Loco-Motion." And in 1975, Motown Records' first No. 1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman," first done by the Marvelettes, hit No. 1 for the Carpenters.
There would be no remakes of a No. 1 hit for another 11 years. Then one of the most challenging songs for the original act to record in 1969 made its return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 on September 6, 1986.
In the summer of 1969, the Dutch band Shocking Blue recorded guitarist Robbie van Leeuwen's composition, "Venus," but the group had to do the song in both their native Dutch and in English because they knew this would be a worldwide release. Recording the song in Dutch was far from being an issue.
Recording it in English was. Lead singer Mariska Veres spoke no English, and so when it came time to record the English version of the song, the words had to be translated phonetically, meaning they were written out in syllables for Veres to sing. And making it harder was the mistake of the very first line. In his work, van Leeuwen's line was supposed to read, "The goddess on the mountain top." But it was a mistake on the writer's part when he re-wrote the lyric, "The god-ness on the mountain top." In future years, that line would be re-recorded by the band in that originally "goddess" line.
Inspired by Pete Townshend's opening guitar riff in "Pinball Wizard," van Leeuwen played the opening riff almost note for note, though he varied slightly off of it. And it didn't matter that Veres was singing a line that didn't translate or that she was doing the song phonetically or that van Leeuwen had ripped off a Townshend guitar solo, American audiences didn't care. "Venus" climbed all the way to No. 1 the week of February 7, 1970, spending one week at No. 1, making Shocking Blue the first Dutch act to ever score a No. 1 hit.
Nine years after "Venus" hit No. 1 in the U.S., a British trio formed. They were students at London's St. George School for Girls. Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward were friends since they were 4 years old. Joined by fashion journalism student Siobhan Fahey, the young ladies were instant rebels, dressing differently than the girls at the school in the post-punk music era in England.
When they began to start performing, "Venus" was a part of their act. But as they evolved and ultimately earned a record label deal, "Venus" and other remakes they were doing at the time got put to the side. The ladies wanted to be serious about a recording career and took their chances on newer material.
And it worked. "It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It)" was a collaboration with another trio called Fun Boy Three and it went to No. 4 on the British chart. It was the first of five Top 5 releases for the trio, which did also include a pair of remakes -- "Really Saying Something," another collaboration with Fun Boy Three, and a remake of a Motown song from the 1960s, went to No. 5, and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," a remake of the 1969 No. 1 American hit by Steam, also hit No. 5. In 1984, Bananarama scored a No. 3 hit with "Robert DeNiro's Waiting ... " a hit written by the ladies along with producers Tony Swain and Steve Jolley. A song title featuring the name of a well-known American actor certainly gained the ladies a lot of attention, but only got them to No. 95 in the United States.
The break, though, came with a song perfectly pegged for the right time of year. "Cruel Summer," also written by the young ladies with Jolley and Swain, hit No. 8 in their native country, but months later it hit the Top 40 in the Summer of 1984 here and would not only be Bananarama's first Top 40 success, but would be their first Top 10 hit, peaking at No. 9. Two things also helped out the success of the song in the States: The first being the music video shot in New York City featuring the fashionable ladies in a comedic-type shoot, the second was its small inclusion into the summer hit movie The Karate Kid.
And you'd think there'd be more success.
Nope. Not even a sniff. Bananarama had three British chart singles, and none of those got higher than No. 23. And one of those songs barely cracked the Hot 100 in the United States.
The ladies were in a rut and needing a change in career direction.
Enter three men that would change the face of British music the rest of the 1980s. Their names: Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. Where Jolley and Swain balked at the trio's insistence to remake the Shocking Blue hit "Venus," which they were still doing at their shows, Stock-Aitken-Waterman were open to the idea.
The trio -- collectively known as SAW for the first letters of their last names -- started having a following in the UK thanks for putting together slick-sounding dance songs, scoring a pair of Top 20 chart singles, Divine's "You Think You're A Man" and Hazell Dean's "Whatever I Do," both hits in 1984. But in 1985, SAW exploded in a major way when their production of Dead Or Alive's breakthrough hit, "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)," hit No. 1 in the UK, then broke through on the other side of the Atlantic, hitting No. 11 in the U.S.
So as 1985 began to fade away, the trio went into their new production trio's studio to record "Venus," keeping it in the same style as the original, but this time adding elements to make it into a dance record, something SAW didn't see in this particular song originally. They wanted Bananarama to have success with a song they had done for years, but worked meticulously to make it work. After all, this was their deal as producers.
To "vamp" it up, SAW brought in a session musician to play a new technological toy, a Linn 9000 drum machine that served as the backdrop for "Venus." Stock and Gary Hughes played keyboards on the track and Aiken played guitar.
"Venus" and another track on Bananaram's album "True Confessions," "More Than Physical," were the Stock-Aitken-Waterman additions to an album that Jolley and Swain started. But there was no doubt to anyone's mind that "Venus" was a hot track that needed to be released by London Records.
The second release in England (after Jolley-Swain's "Do Not Disturb" hit No. 31 there), "Venus" flew up the chart before peaking at No. 8, highlighted by a music video from the photogenic trio that saw their image go from dressing in jean jackets and jeans with the pointy-hair style of the early-to-mid 1980s to a sleeker look with fashionable clothes.
In the U.S., "Venus" was the first release from their new "True Confessions" album. "Venus" started innocently at a normal No. 89 on the Hot 100 the week ending June 28, 1986. The next week, it exploded up 32 places to No. 57, then got to No. 43 the following week. On July 19, 1986, "Venus" made its Top 40 debut at No. 34.
The movements were swift up the chart -- to No. 23, then to No. 15, then to No. 9 where it entered the Top 10 on August 9, 1986. From there, it climbed to No. 6, then No. 3, and then No. 2 on August 30 behind fellow Brit Steve Winwood's first No. 1 hit, "Higher Love." But one week later on September 6, 1986, "Venus" pushed "Higher Love" out of the top spot to become Bananarama's first No. 1 hit on either side of the Atlantic. It would also be Bananarama's first No. 1 hit in New Zealand, Australia and Switzerland as well.
And with it hitting No. 1, "Venus" became the fourth No. 1 hit in U.S. chart history to hit No. 1 after its original hit No. 1.
But even with the success of "Venus" hitting No. 1, Bananarama would have only one more Top 40 hit in the U.S. with "More Than A Rumour" hitting No. 4, a smash from the Fat Boys' movie Disorderlies.
That song was co-written and produced by Stock-Aitken-Waterman. And while Bananarama's chart career was waning in the U.S. (they'd continue to have Top 40 hits in their native UK, including three more Top 10 hits), the British production trio who gave the ladies their biggest hit in the U.S. became huge stars around the world, scoring major hits for newcomers Kylie Minogue, Mel and Kim, Jason Donovan and Rick Astley, who hit No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic with "Never Gonna Give You Up" and the follow-up in the U.S., "Together Forever," as well as Donna Summer's last Top 40 hit, the Top 10 worldwide smash "This Time I Know It's For Real."
These days, Bananarama are a duo with Fahey leaving in the 1990s to start a family with husband Dave Stewart of the duo Eurythmics, while continuing musically in a duo called Shakespeare's Sister with American Marcella Detroit (better known as Marcy Levy of Eric Clapton's "Lay Down Sally" fame, a song she sang backing vocals and wrote for the British legend). The duo scored a monster international smash hit in 1992, "Stay."
Though Stock-Aitken-Waterman are no longer together on a regular basis, they do get together on occasion to make music for others, most recently the 2015 holiday song "Every Day's Like Christmas," recorded by Minogue and written by Coldplay leader Chris Martin.
But in 1986, the two trios made magic with a song that was first recorded 17 years earlier by a Dutch group that stumbled over the opening line of the English interpretation of its own song.
Overall, "Venus" did pretty well for itself.
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