"Venus" is a song written by Ed Marshall. The most successful and best-known recording of the track was done by

Frankie Avalon Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1940), better known as Frankie Avalon, is an American actor, singer, and former teen idol. He had 31 charting U.S. ''Billboard'' singles from 1958 to late 1962, including number one hits, "Venus" an ...

and released in 1959, where it reached the top of the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

Background

"Venus" became Avalon's first number-one hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, where it spent five weeks atop the survey. The song also reached number ten on the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

. The song's lyrics detail a man's plea to

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

, the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

goddess of love and beauty, to send him a girl to love and one who will love him as well. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' ranked it as the No. 4 song for 1959. The song was covered in the United Kingdom by

Dickie Valentine Richard Bryce ( Maxwell; 4 November 1929 – 6 May 1971), known professionally as Dickie Valentine, was a British pop singer who enjoyed great popularity in Britain during the 1950s. In addition to several other Top Ten hit singles, Valentine ha ...

who spent a week at number 20 in the Singles Chart in May 1959, the week before Frankie Avalon reached the Top 20 with his original version. In 1976, Avalon released a new

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

version of "Venus". This helped revive the singer's career, as his success had been waning prior to its release and was Avalon's last ''Billboard'' Hot 100 hit. The re-recording of "Venus" peaking at number forty-six on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and at number one on the

Easy Listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

chart. Avalon was quoted stating his opinion of the remake: "It was all right, but I still prefer the original."

Other charting versions

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...

: His version reached No. 23 on ''Billboard''s

chart " bubbled under" the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart at No. 111. *

Jamie Redfern Jamie Redfern (born 9 April 1957) is an English-born Australian television presenter and personality and pop singer. Redfern was an original cast member of children's variety show, ''Young Talent Time'' from April 1971 to early 1972, before leav ...

: His version in 1973 entered the

Go-Set ''Go-Set'' was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble. NOTE: This PDF is 282 pages. Widely described as ...

- Australian charts at number 27.Go-Set Singles
, Retrieved June 11, 2020.

In popular culture

Avalon's recording of the song was used multiple times in the Showtime series ''

Dexter Dexter may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Dexter, the main character of the American animated series ''Dexter's Laboratory'' that aired from 1996 to 2003 * Dexter, a fictional character in the British Diary of a Bad Man#Main, web series ''Diar ...

'', as the favourite song of Arthur Mitchell's sister Vera.

Charts

Weekly charts

All-time charts

References

{{Authority control 1959 singles 1976 singles Barry Manilow songs Frankie Avalon songs Johnny Mathis songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles Chancellor Records singles 1959 songs