A few years ago I posted nothing but Shocking Blue songs the entire weekend…when I was doing 2-3 posts a day. I received great feedback on their material. Most people have only heard Venus and some Nirvana fans have heard Love Buzz that they covered.
This is a band that I found when I first started to blog. I always liked their hit Venus but their other songs are just as good or better to me. The stringy guitar song Mighty Joe and the melodic Never Marry a Railroad Man are great songs.
They were a band out of the Netherlands with a sensational singer named Mariska Veres who hit internationally in 1970. She sounded like Grace Slick to me…maybe a little stronger. Robbie van Leeuwen was the guitar player who wrote the songs.
Shocking Blue successfully combined Beat music and R&B with psychedelic elements of the time like sitar and odd production techniques. Robbie didn’t mind if the band included a few covers, as it took the pressure off him to constantly come up with new material. “We wrote a lot of our own stuff and the radio DJs preferred us to do original songs, but we had so many albums to do the band had to fill in with a few covers. It was quite exhausting writing all the lyrics and song myself”.
They were together from 1968-1974. Shocking Blue was known as a one-hit-wonder with Venus but their other songs were big hits in the Netherlands.
They were not smooth…they were raw… hence why I like them. Venus is probably my least favorite…maybe because I’ve heard it too much and it’s been covered a few times by different artists.
I like finding artists that have been largely forgotten. I never knew about Shocking Blue…with the exception of Venus until 3 or 4 years ago. I do listen to some new music on Youtube but I like digging and finding good bands that deserve attention. To me they are new…
Mariska sadly died in 2006. With her voice, I’m shocked she didn’t have a more successful solo career.
Never Marry a Railroad Man
Mighty Joe
Love Buzz
Venus
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 
Where do you find this stuff? Never Marry A Railroad Man and on the flip side should have been Railroad Steel by the Satellites many years later. lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL…
LikeLike
That’s a cool video of Railroad Man. I still love Venus the best though. I also like Nirvana”s Love Buzz as well as theirs. Do you know this one? It’s my favorite version ever since I heard it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds really cool! No I never heard this before…I love the intro…
This was a selection also…someone mashed them all up.
LikeLike
Robbie van Leeuwen called it quits and Mariska Veres left the group to start a solo career, but this short-lived group was really good.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes they were…Jim I’ve heard them do a live cover of White Rabbit… she had that voice much like Slick did.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good stuff. I like a husky voice, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
She had a great voice and it’s sad that Venus is the only thing America heard.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah…well…the American system can be touchy & self involved.
LikeLiked by 2 people
She had the voice and goodness knows she has the look. She was a better Grace Slick than Grace Slick.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Venus” was one of the most unusual songs on the radio at that time. The opening guitar rythm rift then the off-beat guitar. Seems the Fender Rhodes piano was a studio musician. I saw them on a German teen show and there was no piano. Still a great song and she was better than Grace Slick.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It does sound different than anything at the time. I totally agree… I liked her better than Grace Slick.
LikeLike
At least they did have that one American breakthrough, a lot of European talent never even gets that. Seems like they were a pretty talented act .
LikeLiked by 1 person
They were talented…yea if it wasn’t for Venus…we would have never heard of them over here. Robbie van Leeuwen is a good songwriter.
LikeLike
Shocking Blue were a really cool band and are a great illustration of how the one-hit wonder definition can be flawed. Yes, internationally, they were mostly known for “Venus,” a song I still dig and think in its original version is much better than the Bananarama cover. But, ss you rightly noted, had many more than just one hit in their native country The Netherlands. I also agree with you that Mariska Veres was a compelling frontwoman and vocalist. I like all of the tunes you featured in your post.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thanks Christian…I listen to some of those songs and I’m amazed that they didn’t follow up Venus here and play them.
I do like Venus a lot but some of their other songs are really good.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s hard to understand. As you said, Shocking Blue had other tunes that were as good as “Venus”. Maybe lack of international support/promotion by their record label played a role? Really don’t know…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yea me either…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, hidden depths with them. Another case of talent not quite being rewarded. They had a clean sound.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Man, she was gorgeous and had one hell of a voice. Great to hear more than just “Venus.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes…they had more to offer than Venus and yes…she had it all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had heard ‘Shocking Blue’ before on a doco which I really liked. Great psychedelic – glam music.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mariska Veres had a good voice, but I don’t think hers was as good or strong as Grace Slick’s.
LikeLiked by 1 person