ABBA will be celebrating 50 years of their iconic “Dancing Queen” track by reissuing the song as a sparkling black vinyl 10”. The release will also come on traditional black vinyl. The release was remastered at the legendary Abbey Road Studios.
Last month, the Swedish pop group’s 1976 smash surpassed two billion streams on Spotify, becoming one of fewer than 300 songs on the platform to reach that threshold. “Dancing Queen” marked ABBA’s first song with two billion Spotify streams.
“Dancing Queen” was released 50 years ago as the lead single from ABBA’s 1976 album Arrival. Producers Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson built the song with Ulvaeus’ ABBA bandmate Benny Andersson. They cited George McCrae’s early disco hit “Rock Your Baby,” Dr. John’s album Dr. John’s Gumbo, and Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound aesthetic as chief influences.
“Dancing Queen” fans include a number of modern musicians, including Matthew Lewin of the modern avant-pop duo Magdalena Bay, who called it “the best feeling song of all time.” In an excerpt from Jeff Tweedy’s book World Within a Song, the Wilco frontman wrote that, at a time when he thought he hated pop music, “Dancing Queen” changed his mind.
The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame almost 40 years after it was written. Ironically, the song sat unreleased for almost a year because the band released “Fernando,” thinking they needed a ballad to follow “Mamma Mia.”
Buy the 50th anniversary editions of Dancing Queen here.
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