Shocking Blue

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Shocking Blue
Origin	The Hague, Netherlands
Genres	Rock, Nederbeat
Years active	1967–1974
Labels	Pink Elephant, Polydor
Past members
Mariska Veres Robbie van Leeuwen Cor van der Beek Klaasje van der Wal Fred de Wilde

Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band from The Hague, the Netherlands, formed in 1967. Their biggest hit, "Venus", went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970, and the band had sold 13.5 million discs by 1973, but the group disbanded in 1974.^[1]

[hide]

[edit] Members

The initial line-up consisted of:

Robbie van Leeuwen (guitar, sitar and backing vocals), (October 29, 1944 - )
Fred de Wilde (vocals), later replaced by Mariska Veres (October 1, 1947 - December 2, 2006) in 1968.
Klaasje van der Wal (bass guitar), (December 1, 1949 - )
Cor van der Beek (drums), (June 6, 1948 - April 2, 1998)

[edit] History

	Shocking Blue - Venus (Original) excerpt An excerpt from Venus
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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 Mariska Veres took over the vocals, the group charted a world-wide hit with the song "Venus", which reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970. Initially the disc was a big hit in the Netherlands, where it reached #3 in the summer of 1969. It subsequently sold 350,000 copies in Germany, and topped the U.S. chart for three weeks, becoming the Netherlands' first American #1 hit. It sold over one million copies there by January 1970, and received a gold disc awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America. Global sales exceeded five million copies.^[1] The song was based on an arrangement of the classic Stephen Foster song “Oh, Susanna” (1963) by The Big Three (folk music group).
Other hits include "Send Me a Postcard" in 1968/69 and "Long and Lonesome Road" (often mistakenly named as "Long Lonesome Road") in 1969. "Hot Sand", the flip-side of "Venus", was also heavily plugged on Dutch radio.^{[citation needed]}
Many more Dutch hits followed including "Mighty Joe" (flip-side "Wild Wind") in 1969/70. This was the group's second million seller.^[1] In 1970 "Never Marry a Railroad Man" (flip-side "Roll Engine Roll"), their third to sell over one million^[1] and "Hello Darkness". In 1971 there followed "Shocking You", "Blossom Lady" and "Out of Sight, Out of Mind". In 1972 came "Inkpot" and "Rock in the Sea"; plus "Eve and the Apple" in 1972/73 and finally "Oh Lord" in 1973. None of these latter songs charted in the U.S.
In 1974 Mariska Veres left the group to start a solo career. Her only solo hit was "Take Me High" in 1975. From the 1990s, Veres toured with a new group under the Shocking Blue banner, with permission of her former bandmates.^{[citation needed]}
On April 2, 1998, Cor van der Beek died at the age of 49.
On December 2, 2006 Dutch news service ANP reported that Mariska Veres had died from cancer at the age of 59.
Nirvana covered the Shocking Blue song "Love Buzz" as their debut single in 1988 and as an extra track on the re-release of their 1989 release Bleach.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

1968 Shocking Blue (Polydor) also known as Beat With Us (German title)
1969 At Home (Pink Elephant)
1970 Scorpio's Dance (Pink Elephant)
1971 Third Album (AKA Shocking You, Pink Elephant)
1972 Inkpot (Pink Elephant) - The official music of Mark Six
1972 Inkpot (Polydor – West German release with several different tracks)
1972 Live in Japan (Pink Elephant)
1972 Attila (Pink Elephant)
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" with 3 different tracks, Pink Elephant)
1974 Good Times (Pink Elephant)

All of these albums have been reissued on CD except Beat With Us and Live in Japan. Eve and The Apple and Ham were not re-issued as they feature tracklistings almost identical to Atilla and Dream on Dreamer, respectively.