ABBA’s Dancing Queen at 50: why we’ve spent half a century having the time of our lives

Fifty years ago, Swedish pop sensation ABBA released their single Dancing Queen .

It reached number one in 15 countries, from Australia to the US, to Norway and South Africa.

Five decades later it’s still riding the airwaves, being belted out on the West End stage , squealed at karaoke parties, paraded at Mardi Gras, and danced to at wedding receptions.

How did this sweet yet corny song wheedle its way into our lives, and manage to stay there for half a century? Birth of a hit Dancing Queen was born in 1975, a year after ABBA’s famous Eurovision Song Contest win with Waterloo .

ABBA’s popularity had expanded but they hadn’t yet cracked the prized American market.

The rising disco trend offered the next best shot.

In his book ABBA All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, author Benoit Clerc tells the story of band members Benny and Bjorn workshopping their new song at a cabin on Viggso island near Stockholm.

They recorded a rough piano and guitar demo on cassette , then played it to their manager, Stig Anderson , and his teenage daughter Marie.

Marie later described it as an “awful” recording of “the most incredible song”.

In the studio in Stockholm, the duo worked with musicians to craft a rhythmic dance groove, inspired by George McCrae’s 1974 disco hit Rock Your Baby .

Two days later they had a draft backing track titled Boogaloo.

ABBA historian Carl Magnus Palm reports that when Benny played the song to one of the group’s vocalists, Anni-Frid, she was “moved to tears”.

Manager Stig renamed the song Dancing Queen in a serendipitous move.

ABBA was invited to perform at the gala for Swedish King Carl and his soon-to-be queen in June, 1976 .