A one hit wonder. But such a brilliant single and a fantastic song. Covered by Bananarama and by Melbourne's own Blue Ruin in the eighties, there was one night at Barbarella's when we played all three versions of the song. we would often make up a playlist to be published in Beat and the week after that I made our top ten Venus-centric with all three tracks and a bunch of made up ones. I was trying to be funny by adding Venus de Milo by Television and other songs with Venus in the title.
When I first started DJing the early 80's this was one of the first songs I ever played. And it's been in my DJ sets for ever. I first heard it or saw it back in 1970 on the chart show Channel 2 used to run on a Saturday afternoon. I religiously watched the show every week. When they took it off the screens I took up soccer.
And speaking of Blue Ruin, when I started up Swerve Records label in the mid nineties, their lead singer Quincy McClean was our fourth signing. Quincy Mclean and The Smooth Bastards. Not sure about the name at the time but like it now. But the albums he (and they) made with us were fantastic. The first one "Friends In Low Places" got so much coverage and was highlighted in Penthouse magazine, FHM and Rolling Stone. I got calls from all over Australia asking about touring. The band was reluctant to leave Melbourne though. I guess it was just a hobby. Still on record and live they were just great.
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