Shocking Blue

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Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band, formed in The Hague in 1967. The band spawned a number of psychedelic rock hits throughout the counterculture movements era during the 1960s and early 1970s, including Never Marry a Railroad Man, Mighty Joe, Love Buzz, Blossom Lady, Inkpot and "Venus". The latter became their biggest hit and went to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and many other countries during 1969 and 1970.

The band had sold 13.5 million records by 1973, but the group disbanded in 1974, during the final years of the hippie, flower power and other counterculture movements around the world.

Video Shocking Blue

History

Shocking Blue was founded in 1967 by Robbie van Leeuwen. The group had a minor hit in 1968 with "Lucy Brown is Back in Town". After Fred de Wilde left in 1968, Mariska Veres took over the vocals and the group charted a world-wide hit with the song "Venus", which peaked at No. 3 in the Netherlands in the fall of 1969. The song was released in America and Great Britain at the end of the year, and it reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970. It subsequently sold 350,000 copies in Germany, and topped the U.S. chart for three weeks, the first song from the Netherlands to do so. It sold over one million copies there by January 1970, and received a gold record awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America. Global sales exceeded five million copies. The song was based on "The Banjo Song" (1963) by The Big 3.

Other hits include "Send Me a Postcard" in 1968/69 and "Long and Lonesome Road" (often mistakenly named as "Long Lonesome Road") in 1969. Shocking Blue's songs also received quite a large amount of radio airplay on Dutch channels.

"Venus" was followed by "Mighty Joe" (flip-side "Wild Wind") in 1969 and "Never Marry a Railroad Man" (flip-side "Roll Engine Roll") in 1970, which both sold over a million records, the latter also become a top ten hit in several countries around the world. Latter songs - including "Hello Darkness" (1970), "Shocking You", "Blossom Lady" and "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" (1971), "Inkpot", "Rock in the Sea" and "Eve and the Apple" (1972) and "Oh Lord" (1973) were successful in Europe, Latin America and Asia, but failed to chart in the U.S..

In 1974 both Robbie Van Leeuwen and later Mariska Veres left the group, leading to their split. Veres started a solo career until 1982. Her singles "Take Me High" (1975) and "Lovin' You" (1976) were mainly popular in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Other known singles were "Tell It Like It Is" (1975), Dusty Springfield's "Little By Little" (1976), and "Too Young" (1978). Most of these songs today are rare.

Shocking Blue made a comeback in 1979, and recorded "Louise" as their first single since their breakup back in 1974. However, the song was never released for unknown reasons. They did however, perform live with their earliest songs such as "Venus" and "Never Marry a Railroad Man" in 1980. They made another comeback in 1984, and later recorded "Jury and the Judge" with "I Am Hanging on to Love" on B-side, and yet another unreleased song "Time Is a Jetplane" in 1986.

Drummer Cor van der Beek died on April 2, 1998 at the age of 49 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Mariska Veres died of gallbladder cancer on December 2, 2006 at the age of 59 in The Hague, Netherlands.

Maps Shocking Blue

Cover versions

Bananarama covered "Venus" in 1986, hitting number one in the US and the UK Top 10 (#8).
Nirvana covered the song "Love Buzz" as their debut single in 1988, and it also appeared on their 1989 album Bleach.
The Prodigy covered the song "Love Buzz" on their 2004 album Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned but called it "Phoenix".
Mint Royale remixed Shocking Blue's version of "Acka Raga" (itself a cover from John Mayer and Joe Harriott's Indo-Jazz Fusions song of the same name) for their 1999 track "From Rusholme with Love", featured in several films of the time.

Shocking Blue-Send Me A Postcard - YouTube

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Members

The initial line-up consisted of

Robbie van Leeuwen (guitar, sitar and backing vocals) (1967-1973)
Fred de Wilde (vocals, 1967-1968)
Klaasje van der Wal (bass guitar, 1967-1972)
Cor van der Beek (drums) (1967-1974, deceased)

Later members were

Mariska Veres (vocals, 1968-1974, deceased)
Leo van de Ketterij (guitar, 1970-1971)
Martin van Wijk (guitar, 1973-1974)
Henk Smitskamp (bass guitar, 1972-1974)

Also

Wim Voermans
Jan Pijnenburg
Michael Eschauzier
André van Geldorp

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Discography

Albums

1968 Shocking Blue (Polydor) also known as Beat With Us (German title) #31 US
1969 At Home (Pink Elephant)
1970 Scorpio's Dance (Pink Elephant) also known as Sally Was A Good Old Girl (Japanese title)
1971 Third Album (AKA Shocking You, Pink Elephant)
1972 Inkpot (Pink Elephant) - The official music of Mark Six
1972 Live in Japan (Pink Elephant)
1972 Attila (Pink Elephant) also known as Rock In The Sea (Japanese title)
1972 Eve and the Apple (Same as Attila with one different track, Polydor)
1973 Dream on Dreamer (Polydor)
1973 Ham (Same as Dream On Dreamer, but with 3 different songs and 6 alternate versions, Pink Elephant)
1974 Good Times (Pink Elephant)