Venus In Blue Jeans

Predating the Shocking Blue recording "Venus" by seven years, this track was written by Howard Greenfield and Jack Keller. And the Venus concerned was a terrestrial one named Eileen Berner whom Keller had dated.

Jimmy Clanton was one of the few white singers to emerge from New Orleans in the 1950s. In 1958 he hit #4 with "Just A Dream," an R&B track co-written with Cosimo Matassa, who recorded Fats Domino. The following year, he starred in a movie called Go Johnny Go!, which set him up as a teen idol. "Venus In Blue Jeans" fit this image, with Clanton singing about a heavenly teenage girl here on Earth. He was 21 when he recorded it; it was his last Top 40 hit.

In the UK, this was a #4 hit for the British singer Mark Wynter, whose version was released soon after Clanton's.