Songs That Changed Music: Abba - Dancing Queen

At the start of the seventies, the idea of a musical group from a non-English speaking country having significant and consistent chart success in the English speaking market, seemed unimaginable. But in the mid-seventies, one group transcended all of these expectations, with songwriting and a sound that illustrated pop perfection. 

The group was ABBA and their most iconic hit - “Dancing Queen” - brought an infectious, American disco groove to EuroPop, taking the world by storm and changing the course of popular music history.  

ABBA - as a quartet - was formed in Stockholm in 1972…when two married couples: Agnetha [Ag-neh-tha]  Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus And Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid  (“Frida”) Lyngstad formed a pop group with a name built as an acronym of their first initials..

Agnetha... Björn... Benny... and Anni-Frid 

The group was gaining traction, but their first big break came in 1974, when ABBA earned a spot in the Eurovision Contest with their song “Waterloo.” It was the first time, performers were allowed to sing in their choice of language - rather than the language of the country they represented. ABBA sang in English and eschewed the ball gowns and tuxedos of the other competitors. 

They appeared on stage in their glam-rock attire, singing in English in a style unlike anyone else around them.  

The quartet would go on to win the entire competition,  and the song’s release would be the first one credited under their new name --- ABBA. After its success at Eurovision,  “Waterloo” hit the number one spot in not only Sweden but also, the UK, Germany Switzerland...and it made a powerful showing on the American stage, hitting number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.  

Dancing Queen was written by Benny and Björn, and manager Stig Anderson. They credit George McCrae’s 1974 disco hit, “Rock Your Baby” as a major inspiration. Under the working title of “Boogaloo”, Benny played the instrumental track for his wife Frida who was brought to tears by the sound. She recalled: “Benny came home with a tape of the backing track and played it for me. I thought it was so enormously beautiful that I started to cry.”   

The track was produced by Benny and Björn, with Michael B. Tretow as the engineer.  

On August 16, 1976 “Dancing Queen” was released as a single in Sweden.  The response was massive, as it took the number one spot on charts all over the world - including in the US, when in April of 1977, it became the group’s first and only US number one hit.  

And it remains their most popular and iconic hit. It is the quintessential ABBA recording, showcasing the band’s pop perfection.  In 2015, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. 

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[Producelikeapro]

Who are some other artists you would like us to cover in this series?

[stevebrown]

Back in 75 my then girlfriend told me she was embarrassed when I put an ABBA song on the pub jukebox. She didn't last long, ABBA did...

[petersvan]

Dancing Queen: arguably one of the, if not most, perfect pop songs of all time.

[LukeSadler]

Never met a musician of any genre that doesn't like ABBA. Every square inch of their songs is filled with catchy ideas. Perfect pop songwriting

[Gynecologist]

Good lord! Those isolated vocals were incredible.

[AndrewBanker]

Great to hear so much respect paid to ABBA. They’ve been labelled as uncool over the years, but the tracks still change your mood and pack the dance floor. The songwriting and production was stellar.

[radiomindchatter]

I'm a 64 year old metalhead and I love Dancing Queen!

[SXTransmission]

Quite right about how many of us Gen X, especially musicians were rather negative about ABBA, but really, you just can't argue with such brilliance can you? The vocals on this are just drop-dead stunning and astounding, hearing them isolated just reinforces it - brings a tear to the eye, incredible. For me, what's interesting about ABBA is the streak of joy and melancholy that runs through it. It's hard to explain, but their hits are never just sugar, there's something else there, under the surface.

[localbod]

Rutger Gunarsson's playing on this is fantastic.
He was a superb bassist.
The vocal performances with such tight harmonies are sublime and in my opinion this recording is a timeless classic.
For a lot of people Abba is a bit kitsch and lightweight but if this track doesn't move you, then it's time to book your plot in a cemetery.

[aaronezzo]

abba has some of the best bass lines of all time

[mattwew]

I remember Stephen Fry saying they were far better than they needed to be. They wrote pop songs, but they made them so exceptionally well.

[HaleysTusk]

People who grew up in the US in the mid to late seventies have no idea how pervasive ABBA was in Europe. I grew up in England and saw the Eurovision win in '74. I moved to the US in '77 and there was an actual equivalence so people in the US can understand how Pervasive ABBA was...think Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, how long they were high on the charts and on every radio station...THAT was ABBA in Europe for almost a decade.

[shawnbell]

During a period when I had lost interest in listening to anything I had a coworker who was in a punk band and one day when discussing music we both agreed that Dancing Queen was one of the greatest songs ever written.

[sm]

A few years ago I was stopped at a light, and I heard "Dancing Queen" playing in the car next to me. The song ended, and the next song began. It was "Dancing Queen". Some people REALLY love it!

[mainmate]

As a native son there's no denying the impact ABBA made on us growing up in Sweden, whatever generation they've always been there.
Its only later I've been really listening to them and realized how huge of an influence they are and how good the songwriting, performances and arrangements are.
I'm glad you choose Dancing Queen, this song has it all, groove, melody, hook, sadness, happiness, drama, restrain and release.
Visually it's such a powerful scene you get sucked into.

[hendrikfischbach]

I started recording songs played on the radio as a kid in 74. I was never ashamed of having ABBA on my cassette tapes next to Supertramp, Queen or other great Bands from that time.
Dancing Queen was regularly played through a shitty speaker at halftime at the soccer stadium i went to.
That was my equivalent of a dance club or disco as a very young teenage boy.
Even when I became older and fell massively for the british hardrock bands - i continued to love their pop songs.
To this day Dancing Queen makes me very emotional. The „voices of the girls“ as Benny calls A&A‘s singing are magically beautiful yet bittersweet.

Tom Petty once said, that time is brutal to music, because most songs disappear after a while.
I guess that will happen to ABBAs music at some point too as it has happened to most music of my parents or grandparents childhood, after they died.
But for us GenX Kids Dancing Queen will live forever in our souls.

[CallMeChato]

1) the haircut and the bit of grey looks great. 2) your deconstruction of Dancing Queen was a revelation. 3) it’s too bad Max Martin weaponized ABBA’s music techniques and used it created the crap we have to listen to now.

[D_Tuned]

This song was everywhere in the 70s. On the radio and the dancefloor. When they sang "having the time of your life" that was an immediate hook. The rest was history.

[uncinarynin]

Years later, a friend of mine did a tour through Mongolia. Part of the journey was with a microbus and what did the driver play on the little tape player of the bus? Abba, Dancing Queen ....
It's truly an immortal worldwide evergreen.

[MarcosRobertoDosSantosJF]

Gunnarsson’s bass lines are amazing. The guy was a legend.