by E.A. van Abbenes
ANOTHER WEEK, and he’ll turn 80. His creation Venus is 55. Hard to believe, for every day she still sounds like a young woman, each time a Gillette Venus commercial airs on TV. Robbie van Leeuwen from The Hague has given America one of its most durable and recognizable songs.
She’s got it, yeah baby she’s got it. Gillette did for women what Paul Polman’s Unilever decided to do with Axe deodorant for men. No more zeroing in on beauty ideals, but on sober realities instead. Women’s bodies are living a life, and it shows: all’s not smooth and tight, not everything is young, scars and stretch marks are normal, and pigment loss happens.
I’m your Venus, I’m your fire, at your desire. When Shocking Blue’s record was released in America in 1969, it became a smash hit. Initially due to a combination of singer Mariska Veres’ accent and singalongs in American bars and discos: millions of people sang I’m your penis. In real life, Mariska wouldn’t have dared to use such words. She was the daughter of an Hungarian violinist and a Franco-German mother, raised in a shielded environment, a template of decency. Mariska was one who drank tea, maybe a juice. She once argued for two hours before allowing a photographer to convince her to leave one more button unbuttoned.
THE LYRICS, however, were very much late ’60s, simple, direct, an ode to young women who dared. Six million records sold, performed by numerous other singers including Tom Jones and Jennifer Lopez, still played daily on SiriusXM’s ’60s Gold channel, background music in numerous films, all because Robbie van Leeuwen gave Venus that perfect intro: the Spanish acoustic riff and the 3-note echo of Mariska’s voice, an effect that was applied in the recording studio to hide that she actually missed a note.
Venus is on US television every day, in 30-second commercials for women’s razors, alternating with a more recent version without Mariska, specifically aimed at a Black women market segment. She’s got it. Any she, regardless of age, shape, status, everyone has something she wants to make smoother. I’m your Venus, it has the same cadence as Oh Suzanna, the old folk song with a similar melody and an unknown composer.
SHOCKING BLUE came to America for a concert tour. Sold-out venues, everything many sizes larger than what the band was used to back in Holland. Robbie didn’t care for it, big stages gave him too little sound control. He was used to singing for Mariska how he wanted his songs to sound, but here he lost all grip. So, no more tours, and soon no more band. Robbie van Leeuwen walked away, moved to Luxembourg, and disappeared, out of sight.
Venus did not, though. It became number one on the US hit parade three times, twice in arrangements by others. And Gillette ensured that it continues to echo in our ears every day. The echo that arranger Dick Bakker from Blaricum added to the sound, because Mariska briefly missed a note.
* E.A. van Abbenes is an historian and a writer.
