Shocking Blue ("Shockin Blue" - shocking blue) is a rock band from Holland, best known for its hit Venus, released in 1969. For a short time of its existence, the team has become the most popular in its country, but has not achieved wide fame beyond its borders. The composition of the Shokin Blue group, its history and discography are later in this article.
Creature
In 1967, the Dutch guitarist Robbie van Leuven, already known in his homeland for his participation in The Motions, decided to assemble his own band. The names of the participants of the "Shokin Blue" in the original composition, in addition to Leuven:
- Fred de Wilde (vocals),
- Clachet van der Wal (bass),
- Cornelius van der Beck (drums).
Robbie himself took the place of the guitarist and became the author of all the songs, he also coined the name for the newly-made ensemble - at first it sounded like “Electric Blue,” according to a line from Eric Klepton’s song Strange Brew, but then “electric blue” turned into “shocking” . This suited all the band members. In this composition, the musicians released two singles and one album. The photo below shows the cover of this album, which was called “Shokin Blue”. It is interesting in that you can see the original composition of the group on it.
Parish Marishka Veres
However, the participants themselves and the manager understood that the Shocking Blue group was missing something. The lyrics are good, the arrangements too, but overall the music is mediocre. And so, in 1968, when he saw the performance of the beginning singer Marishka Veresh at one of the music parties, the manager immediately realized what the group was missing. This girl with gypsy, Hungarian, German and Russian roots had truly unique vocals, and the manager suggested including her in place of Fred de Wilde. One audition was enough for the participants to immediately agree. Below is a photo of "Shokin Blue," taken during one of the first performances with Marishka.
The success of the group with the arrival of the vocalist began to grow noticeably - in the new line-up of “Shokin Blue” two quite successful singles were released, and then the main hit of the group was born, by which they still recognize it.
Venus
This song, released on a single in 1969, was a musical cover version of the 1963 hit The Banjo song, recorded by The Big Three. The text and the new arrangement were composed by Robbie van Leuven. In Holland, in the homeland of musicians, the song took only the third line of the charts, but in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium it came first. In 1969, the band released its second album, At Home - and, of course, Venus was included on its track list. This contributed to the high sales of At Home itself, as well as several of the following singles and albums.
But the real success for the song (and, accordingly, the group) came in 1970, when the head of the American label Colossus Jerry Ross signed a contract with Shokin Blue for the release of the American single with the song Venus. He did not lose - the hit took first place in the main American Billboard 100 chart and did not leave the top of several other charts for several months. This year he again took first place in the charts of Switzerland and Belgium and second place in the charts of Austria, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands. You can see the performance of the most famous song "Shokin Blue" in the video below.
In Russia and the countries of the former USSR, the song is often called "Shizgara" - according to the sound of the line She's got it, with which the refrain begins. This was also facilitated by the song of the Russian rock band "Mongol Shuudan", which recorded its version of the song in Russian, but with the preservation of the original English refrain, called "Shizgara".
Further creativity and disintegration
Despite the innovative sounding of melodies and the unique vocals in the subsequent compositions of “Shokin Blue,” the group was no longer able to repeat the success of the song Venus. In the style of psychedelic ensembles of the time, Robbie van Leeuwen very successfully combined in his arrangements the sound of a rhythm and blues guitar and an Indian sitar, which he played on his own. Some Shokin Blue songs were highly praised by the American band Jefferson Airplane, playing in a similar musical direction, but this did not affect their commercial success.
From 1970 to 1971, another guitarist Leo van der Ketterey joined the band, and as part of this, the musicians managed to tour several countries, including South America, Japan, Indonesia and Hong Kong. The maximum sale of records at that time was noted in the Japanese and French music markets. But this success did not satisfy Leuven - his dream of great performances in the United States remained unfulfilled. The internal scandals between the participants growing on this basis forced the bass player Klache van der Waal to leave the group in 1971. In his place came Henk Smithskamp.
Finally, in 1973, the founder and songwriter of the band, Robbie van Leuven, left Shokin Blue. In his place came Martin van Wake, who also became a guitarist and songwriter. Under his leadership, in the last year of its existence, "Shokin Blue" from a psychedelic turned into a funky group. Finally, in 1974, the team also left Mariska Veres, deciding to do solo work. At this, the existence of the most famous Dutch rock band ceased. The only member to go all the way through the Shokin Blue from creation to collapse was drummer Cornelius van der Beck.
Reunion attempt
In 1979, Robbie van Leuven attempted to reunite with the group. He even prepared new material for recording, but none of the former members supported the idea of resurrecting Shokin Blue. However, only 4 years later, in 1983, Mariska Veres turned to Leuven for permission to use the name of the former group for her new team. He agreed, but all the new Shokin Blue lineup did was one single and two concerts as part of the 1994 Back to the Sixties festival.
Discography
During its existence from 1967 to 1974, the Shokin Blue group released 11 music albums. In addition to the first two albums mentioned above, they were:
- Scorpio's Dance (1970).
- Third Album (1971).
- Inkpot (1972).
- Live in Japan (1972).
- Attila (1972).
- Eve and the Apple (1972).
- Dream on Dreamer (1973).
- Ham (1973).
- Good Times (1974).