Dancing Queen

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Dancing Queen

Written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Stig Anderson, 1976

In the summer of 1975, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus went into a Stockholm studio hoping to write a real dance song. They had a melody but no words yet, so they gave it a placeholder name: “Boogaloo.” For the rhythm, they looked to George McCrae’s 1974 disco hit “Rock Your Baby,” and to the loose, rolling drumming on Dr. John’s 1972 album Gumbo. Recording began that August. Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad added their vocals in September, and the track was finished about three months later.

Even before there were words, the song had a way of moving people. When Benny played the backing track for Anni-Frid, known to fans as Frida, it brought her to tears. It was the group’s manager, Stig Anderson, who renamed it “Dancing Queen,” and he shares the writing credit with Benny and Björn.

Everyone seemed to sense what they had. Agnetha later said that it’s usually hard to know which song will be a hit, but this was the exception: “We all knew it was going to be massive.” Even so, they held it back for most of a year. Stig chose “Fernando” as the next single instead, and “Dancing Queen” waited its turn.

Its Swedish debut came on a very grand occasion. On June 18, 1976, the night before King Carl XVI Gustaf married Silvia Sommerlath, a televised gala was held in the couple’s honor at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. ABBA were the only pop act invited, and they chose to sing their unreleased new song, dressed with a wink in 18th-century costumes to suit the formal evening. It seemed tailor-made for a new queen, but the group pointed out that it hadn’t been written with her in mind. The timing was simply a happy coincidence.

The single was released in Sweden that August and appeared on the album Arrival. At home it stayed at number one for 14 weeks, and it reached the top in Britain and many other countries. In April 1977 it became ABBA’s first and only number one hit in the United States. Decades later it found a whole new audience through the stage musical and film Mamma Mia!, and it is still widely considered ABBA’s signature song. It has also become a karaoke favorite. Billboard ranks it among the greatest karaoke songs of all time, and the Singa karaoke app reports it as the most-sung song of the 1970s.