Everybody dance now: Abba’s Dancing Queen at 50

Fifty years ago, Abba released Dancing Queen. I can’t think of too many songs that have had so much currency throughout those years, that — even now — can pack a dance floor within a moment or two of people hearing the iconic sweep of a piano.

A wedding without Dancing Queen? Not necessarily unthinkable … just a waste of the DJ to find a floor-filling favourite for everyone, regardless of generation or even musical taste. I’ve seen seniors dance with their grandkids, Gen X eyerollers give up their sarcasm, wallflowers lose their shyness and swing their arms in the air — a lot can happen in just a few minutes.

Dancing Queen, you see, is transcendent. It long ago moved beyond kitsch or pop or any other insult flung Abba’s way after the song came out in August 1976.

It was a huge hit on release, going to No. 1 all around the world. I was all of 11 at the time, and it was impossible to not hear it, well, everywhere. And it does have an appeal: I remember going skating at the old Memorial Stadium in St. John’s, and how skaters could not help but sway when Dancing Queen and twirl when it came over the PA.

I, of course, soon enough became so much cooler than Abba. I found other musical interests and moved on.

But Abba’s inevitable comebacks — and there have been a slew of them — almost always involve Dancing Queen.

In the 1990s, I was really active with the Canadian Association of Journalists and its St. John’s chapter. We were cooking with gas, and to pay for our activities, we had fundraisers. We hit a nerve with one particular type: Retro Night. I and others had a hunch that people would show up to dance to funk, disco and other bits of Seventies fun.

I remember the first Retro Night, which I think was in 1994 or 1995, at the old Haymarket Square on Duckworth Street. We got a deal on the rental, plastered posters around town, and waited, hoping people would show up. And they did, with a good number dressed for the part in costumes that made the night a riot.

And what song killed? “You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life.” What else?

For such a Seventies phenomenon, Abba had strong moments in the Nineties, too. The CD compilation Abba Gold became their top-selling release after its release in 1991, almost a decade after they called it quits. The Australians powered a lot of this. The fantastic 1994 comedy Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was fuelled by queer pride, glitter and “bloody Abba,” as Terence Stamp’s character said.

Then came the musical Mamma Mia, which is running around the world, including London’s West End, where it debuted 27 years ago.

That spawned the Meryl Streep film in 2008; like the theatrical show, Dancing Queen — originally about a sultry dancer who’s “young and sweet, only 17” — is now about middle age and nostalgia, but it’s still a showstopping moment. In the film it gets a light feminist kick as all the women in the resort town band together and parade to the shore. I’ve had friends tell me they would have gladly jumped off the jetty, too.

What about the too-cool-for-Abba crowd? Ah, who cares. And I’m not even sure how many are out there. It’s not just weddings, of course. Go to a karaoke night and see what happens. People give it up.

Almost three years ago, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times about, of all things, Dancing Queen. Well, it’s about more than that. Tweedy, born two years after me, also grew up wanting to love punk and edgier stuff. Like many of my generation, he writes that he associated “disco” with “gay” (“and to 9-year-old boys who didn’t know any better, “gay” meant “bad”) and thought little of how Black culture influenced dance music at the time.

Dancing Queen, then, was to be disdained or ignored.

Until he couldn’t do it any more. As he writes (here again is the gift link for the full NYT essay):

Finally, years later, after I’d started trying to write songs, I found myself staring at an overhead speaker in a grocery store aisle (not stoned!) just reeling at this familiar melody and how exuberantly sad it was. “Having the time of your life!” It was a real “come to Jesus” moment. A “come to Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid” moment.

Before that day, I, along with many others, had denied myself an undeniable joy. Countless fantastic records and deep grooves were dismissed and derided out of ignorance. But of course, this song and this music was always going to win eventually. Because it’s just too special to ignore forever.

To this day, whenever I think I dislike a piece of music, I think about “Dancing Queen” and am humbled.

That song taught me that I can’t ever completely trust my negative reactions. I was burned so badly by this one song being withheld from my heart for so long. 

That point of view spoke to me a lot. I was an Abba fan as a kid, rapidly grew out of them, and then kept coming back, again and again.

Some years ago at a wedding reception, Dancing Queen made its inevitable presence felt. At that point, it didn’t matter who was dancing with whom, because everyone just made space for anyone who wanted to take part.

That to me is the magic of Dancing Queen. It just wins you over.

So go ahead, folks, point your fingers at your bestie or a complete stranger, and holler, “YOU can dance, you can jive,” and have the time of your life.

I’ve added Dancing Queen to a playlist of tunes mentioned here on the blog. Feel free to poke around.