"Venus" is the name of a song written by Ed Marshall and Peter DeAngelis. The most successful and well-known recording of it was done by Frankie Avalon and released in 1959 (see 1959 in music). It became Avalon's first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it spent five weeks atop the survey. The song also reached number ten on the R&B chart. The song's lyrics detail a man's plea to Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, to send him a girl to love and one who will love him as well.
The song was covered in the United Kingdom by Dickie Valentine who spent a week at number 20 in the Singles Chart in May 1959, the week before Frankie Avalon reached the Top 20 with his original version.
In 1976, Avalon released a new disco version of "Venus". This helped revive the singer's career, as his success had been waning prior to its release. The re-recording of "Venus" was Avalon's last Hot 100 hit, peaking at number 46. It did reach number one on the easy listening chart. Avalon was quoted describing the remake: "It was all right, but I still prefer the original." Johnny Mathis released a cover version of the song in 1968, where it "bubbled under" the Hot 100 chart at #111 in 1968. Barry Manilow covered the song in 2006 on his album The Greatest Songs of the Fifties.
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