ABBA sang a new song called Dancing Queen during a special gala at The Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.
Abba perform Dancing Queen 50 years ago to King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden and his bride-to-be Silvia, who would become a queen.
Today marks 50 years since Dancing Queen was first performed live for a soon-to-be Queen – the beginning of megastardom for ABBA. On June 18 1976, the day before their wedding, King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden and his bride-to-be Silvia were treated to a very special live performance.
ABBA sang a new song for them, called of course Dancing Queen, during a special gala at The Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. With its disco beat and catchy lyrics ‘You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life. See that girl, watch that scene, Digging the dancing queen’, it was a sure fire hit.
Exactly 50 years later, that song is still finding a place in night club dance floors and wedding parties, it has been number one in 16 countries, including being their only song to top the US charts. The track also sold more than 3 million copies worldwide. And it has been covered by Kylie Minogue, Cher, Lewis Capaldi and Rita Ora, features in the long running musical Mamma Mia and it has just passed the two million steams marker on Spotify.
But the song started off being put together in chunks and even had the working title ‘Boogaloo’. It was written by members Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and also their manager Stig Anderson and has become part of music history. Benny and Bjorn had said they had always wanted to write a dance song and drew inspiration from the 1974 George McCrae disco hit “Rock Your Baby”.
It was manager Stig Anderson who suggested the title “Dancing Queen.” When the backing track was complete the ‘boys’ took the tape home to play to their partners. Anni-Frid Lynstad recalls: “I cried when I heard it. I thought it was so incredibly beautiful.”
Agnetha was apparently asleep so Bjorn waited until the morning because he didn’t want to wake her. But later he said: “I played it for her over and over. We couldn’t believe how good it sounded.” And when the girls went into the studio to record the lyrics, Agnetha admits: “When we recorded the vocals, I remember we both had the chills. The hair stood up on our arms.”
Sadly, apart from the band themselves, including singers Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, very few of the musicians who played on the track are still with us such as bassist Rutger Gunnarsson, drummer Roger Palm and guitarist Lasse Wellander. However guitarist Janne Schaffer is still performing at the age of 80 years old and he can recall the day he was asked to add his instrument to the song.
It was the summer of 1975 and he had just finished a recording session with another artist and was about to head home when his friend and ABBA’s sound engineer Michael B Tretow asked if he could stay behind and add his rhythm guitar to a brand new song by the group. At that point, it had no lyrics. And its working title was Boogaloo.
He had no idea this was to become one of the world ’s most played records. Janne told The Mirror : “Michael said to me ‘Could you stay for a while and check out this ABBA tune which we recorded last weekend as I think it needs another type of rhythm guitar’. And he played it to me and I wrote down the harmonies and then he said ‘Put it on the record’ and I took my Gibson Les Paul guitar and I played along with the rhythm section and then Michael said ‘That’s fine. We keep it’. There were no vocals and I just played the rhythm and then I left. There are marks on the master tapes, I gather, which say ‘Rhythm guitar: Janne’.”
Once he had finished recording his part, he didn’t give it another thought and the next time he heard it was on the radio in August 1976 when the single now called Dancing Queen was released. Abba member Anni-Frid says the song has always been her favourite adding: “It is a masterpiece. I remember when Benny played me the background tape, I started to cry. I was so moved by it.”
Janne adds: “I didn’t hear the track again until it came on the radio. And I thought ‘Wow’. I am very proud of it. I was so impressed to hear the final result with the vocals and so on. Sometimes when I worked with ABBA, I was very surprised with the end result as I thought they were going in another direction with the song to when we recorded it.
“It is incredible to think this song is still being played. To me, it is unbelievable. I am so proud to have played a small part in this. I respect Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid so much. I am thankful they picked me to play along with them.”
Janne did not just contribute to Dancing Queen. He was very much part of ABBA’s story as he played guitar on a total of 46 tracks during their ten years together. That is almost half of their catalogue.
He was there in the early days for albums Waterloo in 1974 and ABBA in 1975 on songs such as Mamma Mia, SOS and I Do I Do I Do. But he admits their sound matured when they released their album Arrival in 1976 which contained the hits Dancing Queen, Knowing Me Knowing You and Money Money Money.
He says: “I think there are a few factors for the change. The first few albums Benny and Bjorn didn’t know what musical way they were going in and so they tried lots of different things and by the time of Arrival, they had found their musical direction.”
Their huge success has continued decades on from their last public live performance together in 1982. They reunited to record songs for their new album and avatar show Voyage which ensures they remain hugely popular and win over new fans dancing to their songs every year.
* Dancing Queen has been remastered and is being released on two special limited edition 10 inch vinyl singles on August 14 to mark its 50 th anniversary this year.
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