“Hung Up” by Madonna

Madonna led off Confessions on a Dance Floor, her tenth album, with "Hung Up" in 2005, and it plays like a pop star storming back onto the floor after her popularity sagged in the wake of American Life. She wrote and produced it with Stuart Price, and its hook is borrowed gold: an instrumental passage from ABBA's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)", cleared only after Madonna asked Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus herself, a pair who almost never say yes to samples.

Price builds a chugging groove steeped in 1980s pop, with a ticking clock underneath that frets about time slipping away, while Madonna plays a strong, independent woman still snarled up in a love affair. Critics ranked it with her best dance tracks, and it went to number one in 41 countries and into the Guinness book. Johan Renck's video doubled as a salute to John Travolta.

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