Dancing queen

Recording of the song began on August 4, 1975 . The original song was called 'Boogaloo'. While working on the track, Andersson and Ulveus decided to turn to the disco rhythms used in George McCray ’s song “ Rock Your Baby ” and the album by Dr. John Gumbo (1972). Feltskog and Lingstad recorded the vocals in September, and three months later the recording was completed. In the course of work on the text, a part was omitted ^[2] .

Dancing Queen lasted six weeks on the first line of the British charts since September 1976, and became the only American ABBA chart topper in April 1977. She also became No. 1 in 13 countries, such as: Sweden (14 weeks), Norway , Ireland , Germany , Belgium , the Netherlands , Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe ), South Africa , Mexico , Brazil , Australia , New Zealand . “Dancing Queen” also reached the top 5 in Canada , Finland , Switzerland , Austria , France ; became No. 14 in Italy , where ABBA were not as popular as in other countries.

In June 1976, the song “Dancing Queen” was performed in front of the King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustav and the future Queen Sylvia Sommerlat . After that, even adherents of the old Swedish traditions expressed interest in the song.

But she was known not only in Sweden and in English-speaking countries, where she was performed in English. For the 1980 compilation album Gracias Por La Música , ABBA recorded a Spanish-language version of Dancing Queen called Reina Danzante , with Spanish lyrics by Buddy and Mary McCluskey.

In the USSR, the song was officially officially published for the first time in 1977 in the Krugozor audio magazine (No. 5) along with the song “ Money, Money, Money ”. In Russian, the songs were respectively called “Dancing Queen” and “Money, Money.” VIA “ Singing Hearts ” with the soloist Antonina Zhmakova performed a Russian-language cover called “The Queen of Dance” (Russian text by Igor Kokhanovsky ), also published on Melody records.

In 1992, the song was released again in the UK - after the band Erasure caused a new surge of interest in ABBA with the success of their album " Abba-esque ". The second issue of “Dancing Queen” also became popular and took the 16th line of the British charts on September 12, 1992 ^[3] .

On November 9, 2002, according to the poll “Top 50 Favorite UK Number Ones”, the song aired on Radio 2 as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Official UK Charts Company . 188 357 listeners voted for this song, and it became the eighth in the overall ranking. In May 2004, the British Phonographic Performance Limited celebrated its 70th anniversary and, in honor of this event, compiled a list of 70 songs that were most often played on radio and in clubs. In this list, “Dancing Queen” took 6th place ^[4] .

US presidential candidate John McCain chose “Dancing Queen” as his favorite song from a list of 10 songs sent to Blender Magazine ^[5] .

In August 2008, “Dancing Queen” stepped over the mark of 500,000 sales in the United States (namely: 512,000) ^[6] .

Version A * Teens

“Dáncing Queen” is the fifth single of the Swedish band A * Teens and the fourth single from the album “ The ABBA Generation ”.

The single was released in March 2000 and marked the beginning of a serious promotion of the group in the United States . As part of this promotion, the group gave a series of concerts here in spring and summer, and in May the American release of their debut album took place; over the next two years (until mid-2002), A * Teens continued to pay special attention to promoting their music in the American market. The song "Dancing Queen" was chosen based on the success in America of its original in 1977 . She led the hit parade of Radio Disney ^[8] , ranked 13th on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales and 95th on the Billboard Hot 100 ^[9] . In total, more than 500 thousand copies of the single were sold in the USA ^[10] . The single was also released in several countries in Latin America and Europe ; although it is not clear whether he was released in Sweden itself ^[11] .

The video clip was shot in March 2000 in Los Angeles (directed by Patrick Keely). Its plot is based on the famous youth film “ Club“ Breakfast “ ”: the group members, along with other students, are punished and left after school in the school library (in American schools this punishment is called detention ). As soon as the teacher goes out into the corridor, they organize a disco in the 1970s. Teachers played Paul Gleason , famous for playing a similar role in the film itself.

The song entered the soundtrack of the comedy action movie Miss Congeniality .

List of Songs

European maxi single: ^[12]

1. Dancing Queen (Album Version) - 3:48
2. Dancing Queen (Pierre J's Main Radio Mix) - 3:27
3. Dancing Queen (Pierre J's Main Extended Mix) - 5:46
4. Dancing Queen (BTS Gold Edition Mix) - 5:13

Other versions

• In the USSR, this song was performed in Russian by the famous VIA "Singing Hearts" (soloist Antonina Zhmakova). The Russian text was written by Igor Kokhanovsky.
• The song was performed in the Russian musical television movie “ Old songs about the main thing. Postscript ”, where it was performed by Kristina Orbakaite , Marina Khlebnikova , Igor Nikolaev and Dmitry Malikov .
• In the film Mamma Mia! The song is performed by Meryl Streep , Kristin Baransky and Julie Walters .
• In the episode " Prom Queen " of the television series " Chorus ", the song is performed by Nye Rivera and Amber Riley .

• Annie-Frid Lyngstad - Vocal and Backing Vocals
• Agneta Feltskog - Vocal and Backing Vocals
• Benny Andersson - Keyboards
• Bjorn Ulway Janne Schaffer Anders Glenmark Michael Arekl - Guitar
• Rutger Gunnarsson - Bass
• Roger Palm - Percussion
• Malando Gassama - Percussion
• Martin Billund, Anders Dahl, Gunnar Michols, Klas Nilsson, Bertil Orsin, Lars Stegenberg, Sisten Stromwall, Harry Teike, Critzof Zdrzalka - Violin
• Oke Arvinder, Lars Brolin, Hokan Ruos - Viola
• Hans Goran Eketorp, Oke Olofsson - Cello
• Bertil Andersson - Double bass

• ABBA performs a song in the film " ABBA: The Movie " (1977).
• The song is included in the musical Mamma Mia! and the film of the same name .
• A parody of the song was included in the sixth episode of the animated series Gravity Falls . There it is a song of the Icelandic group BABBA "Disco Girl".