Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band formed in The Hague in 1967. The band had a number of psychedelic rock hits throughout the counterculture movements era during the 1960s and early 1970s, including "Send Me a Postcard", "Love Buzz", and "Venus," the last of which became their biggest hit, and reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and many other countries during 1969 and 1970.

The band had sold 13.5 million records by 1973 but disbanded in 1974.

Shocking Blue was founded in 1967 by Robbie van Leeuwen. Other members of the group at this time were Fred de Wilde, Klaasje van der Wal and Cor van der Beek. The group had a minor hit in 1968 with "Lucy Brown is Back in Town". De Wilde left in 1968 after joining the Dutch army and van Leeuwen was introduced to Mariska Veres, singing at that time with a club band. He persuaded her to take over the vocals and the group charted a worldwide hit with the song "Venus", which peaked at No. 3 in the Netherlands in autumn 1969. The song was released in America and Great Britain at the end of the year and reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970. It subsequently sold 350,000 copies in Germany and topped the U.S. chart for three weeks, the first song from the Netherlands to do so. It sold over one million copies there by January 1970 and received a gold record awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America. Global sales exceeded five million copies.