“The Sign” by Ace of Base

The title track of the album that introduced Ace of Base to North America in 1993, "The Sign" also turned up on the American rework of the Swedish group's 1992 debut, Happy Nation. Jonas Berggren wrote it and produced it with Denniz Pop and Douglas Carr, and the recipe sounds unlikely on paper: techno-reggae bounce, Europop sheen and the bones of a pop ballad, wrapped around a couple taking stock of where their relationship stands.

It camped at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for six non-consecutive weeks, long enough for Billboard to crown it the number one song of 1994, and no Swedish group before them had held the top single and top album in America at once. It went to number one in 14 countries, earned a Grammy nomination, and in 2023 Billboard slotted it among the 500 best pop songs ever.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.