Songfacts®:

• Paul McCartney explained how he came up with this song in a 1975 interview with Melody Maker. Said Paul: "It's really a total fluke. I was just sitting down and started singing ANYTHING and some words came out. And I got this whole idea... well, the bit on the second side came first.. and I got this idea about a fellow sitting in a cathedral waiting for this transport from space that was going to pick him up and take him on a trip. The guy is a bit blotto and he starts thinking about 'a good friend of mine studies the stars, Venus and Mars are all right tonight.' And the next bit was 'your ruling star is in ascendancy today,' but 'Venus & Mars are all right' was better, it flipped off the tongue. I thought, well I know Venus and Mars are planets so I can't go wrong there." (This interview is available at Rock's Backpages.)
• This song acts as an acoustic and wistful intro to the medley "Venus and Mars/Rock Show," which is the title track belonging to the fourth album by Wings. It was Paul McCartney's first post-Beatles release under the Capitol Records label. Lyrically and sound-wise a playfully pensive tune, "Venus and Mars" leads into the bodacious and carefree jam, "Rock Show," lending it a theatrical quality.
• All of the original songs on the album were credited as written by Paul and Linda McCartney. Paul has been asked over the years why he included his wife as a member of his band, to which he usually replies, "because I liked her very much."
• Sarah Brightman, who was preparing for space travel at the time, recorded a cover of this song on her celestial-themed 2013 album Dreamchaser. When we inquired about Brightman's cover, she told us, "You're either a Beatles fan or a Stones fan, and I was definitely a Beatles fan. When you think about the space area, there is a very playful romantic area within it, when we think about. I wanted a piece that took up this area, and I thought that Venus and Mars very much did. There's something fun about it, something a bit tongue-in-cheek about it, and it just felt right."