It’s the tune that each wedding ceremony and birthday-party DJ is endlessly grateful for. From the opening bar of that effervescent sweep of the piano keys, to these first hovering harmonies from Agnetha Faltskög and Anni-Frid, any conventional disco will splutter into life when “Dancing Queen” is performed, as every superb layer of this pop traditional rolls over the gang.
Inducted into the Grammy Corridor Of Fame virtually 40 years after it was written, “Dancing Queen” sat on the shelf for nearly 12 months, initially handed over for single launch in favor of ‘Fernando’ as a result of ABBA wanted a ballad to comply with ‘Mamma Mia’. However composers Björn and Benny had been satisfied it was one of the best factor they’d written so far, and Agnetha and Frida had been sure it had hit potential too. “We knew immediately it was going to be massive,” mentioned the previous.
“Dancing Queen” made three TV appearances earlier than making its single debut, on August 16, 1976; most notably, it was carried out at a televised gala celebrating the marriage of Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommerlath. That efficiency, which noticed the band decked out in 18th-century regalia, launched ABBA’s most profitable worldwide single. It was their solely file to achieve the highest spot within the US; of their homeland, “Dancing Queen” sat at No.1 for 14 weeks.
‘We had chills… our hair stood up’
If ABBA had been sure the tune could be successful (and who may blame them? Their releases had been breaking data at this stage) nobody would maybe have predicted its ongoing legacy as a bona fide pop traditional and top-of-the-line disco data of all time. Demoed as a tune known as “Boogaloo” and impressed by the delicate dance shuffle of George McRae’s “Rock Your Baby,” “Dancing Queen” is definitely a slower monitor – at 100bpm (beats per minute) reasonably than the usual 120 – typical of most dancefloor-filling cuts. Segments of the day’s recording session for the tune, which happened in September 1975, will be seen in a documentary made in regards to the band’s supervisor, Stig Anderson. The one time that ABBA was filmed within the recording studio, it’s clear that one thing particular was within the air.
Maybe the laser-sharp harmonies that reduce via the monitor’s euphoric swell secured “Dancing Queen” its enduring success. “When we recorded the vocals, I remember we both had the chills,” mentioned Agnetha. “The hair stood up on our arms.”
Or maybe it’s the story of the tune, unambiguous and common in its enchantment: the liberation of the dancefloor while you lose your inhibitions for a number of fleeting moments, and the highlight is lastly on you. Nearly all of us may have been there at the least as soon as in our lives. Pop supremo Pete Waterman believes the opening line – “Friday night and the lights are low” – is fairly onerous to beat, too.
Its legacy lives on
The tune’s complicated, melodic construction makes “Dancing Queen” unmistakably ABBA however, regardless of the impossible-to-improve vocal efficiency, it’s a monitor that has been revisited many occasions through the years by acts maybe foolhardy sufficient to strive. Meryl Streep’s contribution to the primary Mamma Mia! film didn’t win her one other Oscar, however the broader ensemble assembled for the 2018 follow-up cowl definitely airbrushes away a few of these sharper edges, echoing the Season Two contribution to the catalog by the Glee solid.
The A*Teenagers – pint-size ABBA minipops – who loved a handful of hits on the daybreak of the brand new millennium didn’t tamper with the components a lot both, however Daecolm’s soulful reimagining helped him get signed in 2017 after it secured hundreds of thousands of YouTube views. It maybe owed one thing to American band Sixpence None The Richer’s earlier lush remodeling, which by no means received a single launch however ought to have finished.
The MOR kings James Final and André Rieu seized on “Dancing Queen” for a lot of of their exhibits through the years, and the pop act Steps selected to file it for a brand new compilation that sparked the primary of their comebacks. Maybe its biggest interpretation, nevertheless, got here from Kylie, who used the platform of the 2000 Sydney Olympics to make it virtually her personal. Madonna steered clear when even she raided the ABBA again catalog for her Confessions On A Dancefloor album, however she knew the bottom had been nicely lined. With near 50 recordings of “Dancing Queen,” it’s definitely one of the crucial revisited ABBA songs.
Its legacy lives on in much less apparent locations as nicely. The tune’s piano chords impressed Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army,” whereas MGMT admitted they’d adopted the tempo for his or her “Time To Pretend” breakthrough. It’s virtually definitely the disco tune that’s OK for everybody to love – each then and now – and helped break the style on American radio at a time when playlists had been notoriously conservative.
As a second of pop perfection, “Dancing Queen” is inconceivable to beat – or to really mess up. S Membership 7’s 1999 interpretation might have launched the tune to a brand new viewers on the time, however nobody actually remembers their model now. That, maybe, is its genius: a tune so common that anybody feels they’ll go away their mark on it, however one which solely ever leaves you going again to the magic created in Stockholm’s Metronome Studio all these years in the past.
Just like the lady within the tune, its second within the highlight appears prone to final endlessly.
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