Singles A's & B's

I recently have been revisiting groups from the 60's & 70's that I remembered as being a one or two hit wonder. I thought of "Venus" and the flip side "Hot Sand" by the Shocking Blue and went to Amazon to see if they had any CD's by them. I saw "Best Of" and "20 Greatest Hits". What caught my eye was "Singles A's & B's. I thought "How could a one hit wonder band have a double CD out with 47 tracks?" Curiousity got the best of me, and I ordered it. Within a few days the CD arrived and I played it. The first track "Venus" sounding as good as ever. What followed was "Shocking" to me. Every song seem to get better and better and when I reached that last track, I immediatly put disc 1 back in and hit "play" again. WOW! Why didn't this band catch on here in the U.S. 35 years ago? Songs that really stand out for me are "Venus", "Hot Sand", "Never Marry A Railroad", "Ink Pot",and "Angel". The Singer, Mariska Veres, reminds me at times of Grace Slick. I am really glad I purchased this title from The Shocking Blue.

This cannot be a perfect comp, given it's "A/B Sides" format-but what a wonderfuland important document to a much over-looked band! (At least in USA.)On the heels of "Venus," I grew up on their USA LP on the Collosus label.....and a later comp LP of hits on the 21 label. So this is a much-needed breath of fresh air!The recordings here are lean and clean sounding....nice and natural. I was hoping for a little deeper bass, but it's fine. The liner notes are deep, and informative. My only complaint would be the inclusionof a few 80s/90s tracks, to the exclusion of great 70s cuts like "California Here I Come," and "Demon Lover." (Jury and Judge, and Body And Soul are good tunes,but suffer from that awful 80s sound--loud, electronic drums/synth. If you like Springsteen's Born In USA sound, you're home free.)Bottom line: the 70s material on these records just SMOKES!Similar to California's Emitt Rhodes from the same period,Robbie van Leeuwen gave life to this band with tremendous writing/producing/multi-instrumental skills way beyond his years.Highly recommended!

I have no excuse. I had a copy of a Shocking Blue album back in the 70's that had (of course) Venus on it, but it also had plenty of other great songs. Somehow it got lost in the shuffle of way too many albums and I forgot about everything but the hit that still gets played occasionally. What a bonehead I was. Thanks to those who have written reviews of this band and re-opened my ears to them. Sadly, I recently learned that Mariska Veres, the singer for SB, lost her battle with cancer. She had continued in the music business until she passed away in 2007. It's practically criminal that this band never broke stateside. How often do you come across a double CD of a band with one hit that completely blows you away? Not very often, I'd say. 47 songs and at least 30 of them are complete keepers with the rest not far behind. And this is just a collection of all of their singles. My work is certainly cut out for me. Really, do yourself a favor. You like sixties/seventies rock/pop? Buy this now!

Who knew what Shocking Blue did aside from Venus? This double CD is full of cool songs! It's fun to try and think what genre and what time period you would put them in - rock and roll, alternative, country alternative ... every song is a little different. Good value and a nice addition to your collection.

The audio quality on this 2 CD set is just plain awful.It's as if all the sound tracks were all old records played on a crappy old record player with a worn out stylus though dinky little AM radio sized speakers, then miced with some crummy cheap microphones then re recorded on junky old consumer grade recording equipment that was badly in need of cleaning and adjustment. It's as if all the sound is compressed but with no expansion.The quantity is there but there is no quality or dynamic range. I couldn't fix it with an equalizer either because you just can't put back what isn't there to begin with.This is not at all the artists fault but the recording and production is wanting and leaves much to be desired. It assaulted my ears and pained me so much to listen to it, it's going into the plastic recycle bin. That's too bad because it sounded like there were some really good songs on it. As it is, it's not worth the plastic that was used to make it.

Anyone who has not dug into Shocking Blue's work if you are any kind of power pop / garage band enthusiast is truly missing out here. Like Big Star and others, it's a complete mystery this band was not much more successful in the U.S.

I've dug Shocking Blue for the longest time, altho' I prefer the earlier psychedelic, rock stuff to the later material. Europe of course had a lot of great music going on then, including other Dutch acts like Focus (one of the best bands of all time), and Golden Earring of "Radar Love" fame.Mariska's smokey, cutting alto on "Venus" influenced LEGIONS of female singers like me - - as guitarists a few years later would become inspired to pick up the guitar after hearing Michael Schenker's scorching "Into the Arena."Contrary to what many have said, "Venus" was not the only US or international hit of theirs; "Never Marry A Railroad Man" enjoyed heavy rotation even in little ol' Boise Idaho.Catchy songs, cool vibe, KILLER singer!

You will not be disappointed if you buy this album. With 47 tracks you get far more for your money than with the 'Best of..' and there are NO bad tracks. If you know the group you'll be anticipating their West Coast style, but there is a far wider range of music on this compilation, including country and rockabilly, and some real hard rock numbers.In my early teens I loved the catchy singles 'Venus' and 'Inkpot' which charted in the UK and I knew that Shocking Blue were huge in Europop. However, the extent and range of their recorded output took me by surprise when I found this compilation of A's and B's. It turns out their UK chart hits were more light-weight than their general range of recordings.The 'West Coast' style of Shocking Blue has been compared to that of Jefferson Airplane, both in vocal style and in their look. When you listen to Mariska Veres you can reference Grace Slick, Judith Durham, Mary Travers, Joan Baez, Bonnie Tyler and many other great female vocalists, and she stands up against them all. Her voice was so adaptable and rich, never sharp or harsh, which unfortunately cannot always be said for those other great female singers I have mentioned.I was sad to read that Mariska died in 2006 (check the band out on Wikipedia).Treat yourself to this bumper album from a group that was far more than Europop. ABBA, the first European supergroup, broke through our Europop prejudices and served up consistently great pop, but Shocking Blue weren't really about pop. They should have been better appreciated in the UK. Shame on us for not realising how good they were!

Leuk nog eens hun muxiek te horen van shocking blue. Bananarsma heeft hun hit Venus grvovered en ook hit geworden in Engeland zoals shocking blue met hun Venus nummer 1 in Nederland was.

Enfin le voici dans ma mediathéque.Le premier CD avec toutes les faces A est à écouter et réécouter, il n'y a pas que Venus, dans la carrière des Shocking Blue, il y a aussi un son, le son de ces Hollandais, le son du début des années 70'sLe second Cd avec les faces B, est à découvrir, peut-être moins puissant que le A, mais c'est un régal.j'en suis déjà à ma 3e écoute depuis ce matin, et ce n'est pas fini.Autre chose : à la Fnac je l'avais commander (7 + 2 semaines) pour recevoir un mail, votre commande ne peut être honoré SNIFF. Je cherche sur Amazon, surprise, il est là, disponible, neuf dans son emballage. Commande le vendredi soir, le samedi il est dans la poste à Mer, lundi pâques ferié, le mardi à Bégles, et le mercredi matin, dans ma boite aux lettres à BTZ (64).

I had high hopes for this but after playing it I have to admit dissapointment.I can't argue that it isn't good value because in fairness for a 47 track double CD it's well priced.The upside down split theme of the cover is annoyingly repeated throughout the booklet which is a shame because it distracts your eyes whilst either trying to read the biography or turning it upside down to read the track information.Vocalist, Mariska Veres was, perhaps still is, extremely talented but unfortunately the material she was given to sing was mostly 2nd rate. The closest comparison I can think of would be Grace Slick singing Petula Clarke songs. The few songs that don't fall into that catagory are more interesting but, to my mind, not great. The better songs sound closer to a combination of Jefferson Airplanes' White Rabbit and Judy Driscoll's version of This Wheels On Fire.I might have been better to try one of their proper albums before buying this. It could be a case of too much sugar from all the A-sides and too much filler from the B-sides.If asked to sum the album up in a couple of words I would say 'not bad', but personally I am too short of shelf space to give room to too many not bad albums.If I ever run out of other albums to buy I might try another one by The Shocking Blue but I doubt if it will be anytime soon.

中学・高校生の頃、子供心に、子供だましのバンドだとは思いながらも好きで、シングルやアルバムが出るたびにレコードを買っていたものでした。解散してからはすっかり忘れていましたが、先日、YOU TUBEで見て初めて知った、GONNA SING MY SONGやBODY AND SOULをちゃんと聴いてみたいと思って買ってみたのですが、大変良かったです。日本でもヒットした曲のベストアルバムCDはすでに一枚持っていたのですが、この２曲だけのためでも買った値打ちはありました。その他の、昔から知っていた曲も、よく聴いてみると、マンドリンなどをうまく使って、凝った音作りをしているものもあるのですね。久しぶりに聴いた「悲しき鉄道員」のB面のROLL ENGINE ROLLも良かったなあ...これと同時に買ったのですが、ソロになったマリスカ・ヴェレスがSHOCKING JAZZ QUINTETというバンドで、VENUSなどの自らのヒット曲や、ロック、ポップスの有名曲をジャズにアレンジして歌っているアルバムがあり、ものすごく良いので、かつてのファンの方はぜひ聴いてみてほしいと思います。（mariska veresで検索すると出て来ます。）