Song · ABBA
“Dancing Queen” by ABBA
Released 1981
“Dancing Queen” by ABBA appears on 15 radio countdowns from 9 stations between 1990 and 2026. It was first released in 1981. Its best result is #22 on The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #4,473 alternative song of all time.
Watch
Video from YouTube (AbbaVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Dancing Queen" was the lead single from ABBA's fourth album, Arrival, released in Sweden in August 1976, and it's the song most people hear first when they think of the band. Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus wrote it with Stig Anderson and produced it themselves, taking disco, which ruled American radio at the time, and rebuilding it in a Europop mould with a Phil Spector-style wall of sound. George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby" was their starting point.
Andersson's keyboards spin elegant, almost classical lines, the hooks weave in and out, and Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad's layered voices glide from a soft, teasing verse to a chorus that soars. It's about a night at the disco, but really about the pure joy of dancing. It gave ABBA their only US number one, and in 2015 it entered the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 48 | Triple J | Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1990) | 100 |
| 1992 | 73 | Studio Brussel | Studio Brussel De Tijdloze 100 (1992) | 100 |
| 2001 | 1430 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2004 | 847 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) | 885 |
| 2009 | 488 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2012 | 303 | WYEP | WYEP Top 500 Songs Countdown | 500 |
| 2018 | 171 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs | 892 |
| 2020 | 1646 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 80 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2022 | 227 | KEXP | KEXP Top Songs of the Last 50 Years (1972-2022) | 491 |
| 2022 | 939 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2022 | 603 |
| 2023 | 743 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2024 | 42 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2025 | 22 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs | 800 |
| 2026 | 558 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "Dancing Queen" by ABBA.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.