It’s a new month, and a new song hit Number One this week in 1986. On September 6, 1986, “Venus” (video up top) by English pop group Bananarama reached the top of the Billboard “Hot 100”. The song was a cover of the 1969 song by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue.. Bananarama’s song was included on their third studio album, True Confessions.
I liked this song: It had a good beat, and a fairly high energy beat, and I thought it was fun. It was produced by the legendary trio of Stock Aitken Waterman, who were responsible for so much of the music I liked in the mid to late 1980s. Back in that era, I liked a lot of New Wave, and New Wave-adjacent music, including uptempo New Wave dance music, which, in my opinion, was the parent (grandparent?) of Electronic Dance Music. To me, “Venus” was one of several examples of that.
I was familiar with songs by Bananarama, beginning in 1984 with "Cruel Summer" and “Robert De Niro's Waiting...”. Not long after that, I heard their 1982 collaboration with Fun Boy Three, a New Wave version of a 1939 jazz song, "It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It)". So, I wasn’t surprised when “Venus” went to Number One, and I was probably predisposed to like it.
Bananarama’s cover of "Venus" reached Number One in Australia, Canada (Platinum), New Zealand, Number 8 in the UK (Silver), and Number One on the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100”, “US Dance Club Songs”, and “US Dance Singles” charts, and it also reached Number 3 on the Cash Box “Top 100 Singles” chart.
The album True Confessions reached Number 19 in Australia, 10 in Canada (Platinum), 33 in New Zealand, 46 in the UK, as well as Number 15 on the USA’s ”Billboard 200” chart (Gold).
This series will return next week, on September 13 with the next Number One of September 1986.
Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1986” series:
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 1 – January 18, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 2 – February 15, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 3 – March 1, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 4 – March 15, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 5 – March 22, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 6 – March 29, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 7 – April 19, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 8 – May 3, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 9 – May 10, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 10 – May 17, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 11 – June 7, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 12 – June 14, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 13 – July 5, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 14 – July 12, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 15 – July 19, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 16 – July 26, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 17 – August 2, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 18 – August 16, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 19 – August 30, 2026
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