Frankie Avalon - "Venus"
Hit Number 1: March 9, 1959
Stay at Number 1: 5 Weeks
"Venus" is a pretty cheesy song. It's about a guy who is apparently so desperate to find a girl to love, that he prays to the goddess of love, "Venus", for her to grant him his wish. It has some background singers that "ooh" all throughout the thing, and that gives the song some good feel to it. Avalon, however, doesn't sound bad on the track, but he just blandly goes about it. There is a lack of personality on the track in other words.
Avalon himself is one of those teen idols that were pretty much taking over the country around this time. He had two #1 hits, with this one and then the last #1 of the 1950s, "Why". (Which we will obviously get to soon enough) Once the whole teen idol wave went away, Avalon basically disappeared too. Though he made his presence known again in the late 1970s, when he sang the song "Beauty School Dropout" in the movie "Grease". Though I think it's safe to say that Avalon was just a flash in the pan, cause he didn't do anything real notable throughout the 1960s, or the rest of time for that matter.
As for "Venus", it's not too bad of a song. I actually have a playlist on my phone of each #1 song, that I like to listen to every now and then. When "Venus" comes on, I listen to it. I don't skip it. My biggest issue is just the blandness of the song. In no universe would I ever listen to the song multiple times in a row. One time is good enough. And it just seems like the song never goes anywhere. I guess the best way for me to describe the song, is it fits right in with everything the teen idols were all about. There isn't a whole lot that makes "Venus" stand out. Teen idols like Avalon sang gloopy songs about love and heartbreak, and then eventually, they'll start singing songs with some kind of tragic death at the end. Even some who weren't teen idols had songs like that. At least Avalon never got involved in that crap. The people he sang about actually survived his songs.
GRADE: 4/10
THE TWOS:
The Coasters' fun, but stupid "Charlie Brown" peaked at #2 behind "Venus". It's a 5.