The Shocking Blue-The Shocking Blue (1970)


 

Artist: The Shocking Blue

Title:The Shocking Blue

Label: Colossus

Format: 8-Track

Catalog Number: M 81000

Year of Release: 1970

Country and Year of Edition: US 1970

Sell Price: $25.94

Sell Date: 12/27/25

Condition: VG+/VG tested plays excellent start to finish

Discogs Last Sold: 12/16/25 VG+/generic $14.95

Low: $7.97

Median: $17.49

Average: $19.81

High: $39.99

Current low price: $18.26 VG+ (Canada)

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 4

Have/Want: 24/102

Where Sold: Clearwater, MN

Time It Took To Sell:  2 years

Where and When Bought: ebay lot

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go: No

Dutch rock band The Shocking Blues' US debut is generally excellent overall.  "Venus" was a commercial number 1 Billboard hit here and that may have been surpassed in popularity by Nirvana turning "Love Buzz" into a grunge classic.  Here we find the original "Love Buzz" to be more musical--the buzz of the guitars playing into the overall psychedelic instrumentation of sitars and the like.  Nirvana's approach seems ham fisted by comparison, but they took the song off the scrap heap and made it their own.

The 8-track radically overhauls the track order and it doesn't kick off with the albums best material.   Track  one is "The Butterfly and I," the follow-up US single "MIghty Joe" that just missed the top 40 and "I'm A Woman."  My long running favorite has been "Send Me A Postcard" which was a top 10 hit in their home country in 1968.    Yes, there is a bit of Jefferson Airplane Surrealistic Pillow-era to the proceedings but this release is 4 years after that so why the hell not?  Overall, The Shocking Blue were behind their time and ahead of it in 1970.  That was good enough for a certified Gold single for "Venus" but the album didn't follow suit.

AM to Alternative Rock, skipping AOR entirely.



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