Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean
“Venus”
Artist: Frankie Avalon
Music / Lyrics by Ed Marshall
Label: Chancellor, 1958
Frankie Avalon (Francis Avallone) was one of the first in a series of successful Italian-American “teen idols” to come out of Philadelphia in the late 1950s. Originally an accomplished trumpet player, Avalon’s pop hits were recorded for Chancellor Records, one of the premier Philadelphia record companies specializing in the “teen idol” industry, founded by producer / songwriters Bob Marucci and Peter De Angelis. After several hits and successful appearances on American Bandstand, Avalon had his greatest success in 1959 with the song “Venus.” Avalon went on to have a successful career as an actor, appearing on television and in films, including a series of popular “beach” themed movies in the early 1960s.
Musical style notes
“Venus” features an interesting assortment of musical influences: A calypso beat; multiple, pop-style background vocals singing on textless syllables; and the addition of unusual textures like marimba and harpsichord (!) to the rhythm section. Structurally, it is a typical pop song: verse, verse, bridge section, verse, bridge section, repeat of last verse, with an ending section borrowed directly from the introduction to round off the form. It’s a prime example of the sentimental, heavily arranged, Philly teen-idol pop aimed at a white, teen-age female audience in the late 1950s.
Musical “Road Map”
|Timings |Comments |Lyrics |
|0:00-0:17 |Introduction |Hey, Venus…oh Venus… |
| | | |
| |Note complete with chorus, singing on “oo” syllable; | |
| |Avalon adds introductory “call” to Venus. | |
| | | |
| |Note instrumentation: bass, drum, marimba, and | |
| |harpsichord (!). | |
|0:17-0:33 |Verse 1 |Venus, if you will |
| | |Please send a little girl for me to thrill… |
|0:33-0:50 |Verse 2 |Venus make her fair |
| | |I love the girl with sunlight in her hair… |
|0:50-1:07 |Bridge |Venus – goddess of love that you are, |
| | |Surely the things I ask can’t be too great a task… |
| |Musical texture a bit thicker; with marimba. | |
|1:07-1:24 |Verse 3 |Venus, if you do, I promise that I always will be true…|
|1:24-1:40 |Bridge |Venus – goddess of love that you are, |
| | |Surely the things I ask can’t be too great a task… |
|1:40-1:56 |Verse 3 repeats |Venus if you do, I promise that I always will be true… |
|1:56-2:20 |Musical material from introduction, with punch line: |Hey, Venus…oh, Venus… |
| |“make my wish come true.” |Make my wish come true! |
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