"Venus" is a song by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue, released as a single in the Netherlands in the summer of 1969.

In 1986, English girl group Bananarama covered "Venus" for their third studio album, True Confessions, with the single reaching number one in six countries.

The song was written by Robbie van Leeuwen, Shocking Blue's guitarist, sitarist, and background vocalist.

The song initially peaked at number three on the Dutch Top 40 on 12 July 1969, and remained at that position for a total of five weeks.

[14] Jerry Ross, who was in Europe in the autumn of 1969 looking for European hits for release in the United States, was offered the song.

[18] On 28 January 1970, it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales in excess of one million copies in the United States.

[6] "Venus" was included as a bonus track on the 1989 CD reissue of Shocking Blue's second studio album, At Home, originally released in 1969.

Stereogum said, "It's so clean and propulsive: that strum, that dinky organ riff, the Teutonic sneer in Veres' voice.

The group's three members, Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward, had the idea of turning the song into a dance tune, but they were met with resistance from their producers at the time, Steven Jolley and Tony Swain.

Stock, Aitken and Waterman also resisted the idea because they believed that "Venus" would not make a good dance record.

The track was initially produced in an arrangement more faithful to the Shocking Blue original, but was reworked in hi-NRG style after Fahey suggested that their version should sound similar to Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)".

Jerry Smith of the Music Week magazine considered Bananarama's cover as a "lively version" of the original song, "catchy enough for minor success" but "lacking substance" with its SAW production.

[73] In 2014, Matt Dunn of WhatCulture ranked the song at number five in his "15 unforgettable Stock Aitken Waterman singles" list, describing it as a "timeless classic of 80s synth pop, an instantly recognisable foot-tapping gem", while underlining the "provocative video and all its fire, sexy choreography, coffin dancing and red patent-leather devil outfits".

[74] In 2021, British magazine Classic Pop ranked "Venus" number two in their list of "Top 40 Stock Aitken Waterman songs".

The video marked a pivotal shift towards a more glamorous and sexual image for the group that contrasted with the tomboyish style of their earlier work.

[123][20] An instrumental version was also released independently under the producer's alias, Don Pablo's Animals, without referencing Shocking Blue.