Venus

"Venus" is Shocking Blue's fifth single, their fourth for Pink Elephant. The song borrows inspiration from Pinball Wizard (the opening riff) and The Banjo Song (song structure). The B-side is "Hot Sand" in most cases.
None of both tracks were scheduled for inclusion on an album; "Venus" was originally recorded as a B-side for the (withdrawn) single "I Am Woman", a track from their second album At Home. After "Venus" became such a big hit, the album was expanded in a large variety of ways, but all expansions included at least the track "Venus".
As Pink Elephant's release territory was limited to the "low countries", their management suddenly had to negotiate about licensing contracts for other territories. As a result, the single "Venus" was released on a large number of labels: Metronome in the North-European and German speaking countries, Penny Farthing in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, Colossus in Canada and the US, Disc'AZ in France, Joker in Italy, Poplandia in Spain, Polydor in Japan and Stateside in India.
This is the original version of "Venus". The song became a No. 1 hit in the US Billboard Hot 100 three times:
1. the original, early 1970.
2. a replayed portion of the song was part of the medley Stars On 45 by Stars On 45, 1981.
3. a cover by girl group Bananarama (Venus), 1986.
Lots of (replayed?) samples of the original recording were used in Venus (1989).
Shocking Blue's lead singer Mariska Veres recorded a jazzy version of the song in 1993; it is included on the album Shocking You.