Listen closely to Veres singing the song and you’ll also realize that English not being her first language was a bit of a problem. Robbie van Leeuwen admitted he was influenced by the opening riff to Pinball Wizard, along with the Beatles song Ticket to Ride. The two are unmistakably similar and it is not your imagination.

In the intro to the song, you may hear a similarity to the intro of Pinball Wizard, by the Who. Ironically, Venus, their big hit in America, never went to number one on the Dutch chart, although after it was re-released following the American success, it made it to number 3. Shocking Blue, 1970Īlthough Shocking Blue did not have any other American hits, they did continue to have hit songs in their native Holland. You may be tempted to compare her to Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, and it is sometimes suggested that she was acquired for this reason. Her voice is, in a word, amazing, and you’ll realize you’ve missed something if you’ve only heard the Bananarama version of the song.

The singer on Venus was not the band’s original lead vocalist, but Hungarian-German Mariska Veres, added a year after the band formed when the band’s manager heard her perform with her group the Bumble Bees (at a party for Golden Earring). Since Leeuwen’s personality didn’t fit well with the Motion’s founder, Rudy Bennet, he decided to form his own band. Robbie van Leeuwen was originally the guitarist of a popular Dutch group called the Motions, contemporaries of Golden Earring, another Dutch group responsible for an American number one hit with Twilight Zone (Radar Love was also a big hit, but not in the top ten).

Who sang pinball wizard