Have you ever tried slow dancing to ABBA’s Dancing Queen?
The whole idea sounds like a combination of chocolate sauce and spaghetti but with this musician’s cover, ABBA’s timeless pop classic can even become your first wedding waltz. Yes, it’s so good, even if it’s in a genre that you’d never expect.
Stacey Ryan, a musician with over fifty thousand subscribers on her YouTube channel, starts her video with words that will make the most open-minded music fan into a skeptic:
“So I was thinking, what if Dancing Queen by ABBA is a folk song?”
The video, already racking up over 130,00 views after being posted May 5, opens in a calming plucking reminiscent of cozy quiet nights, star-filled skies, and a slow waltz. It’s far off from the original’s intended scene of crazy disco nights with flashing lights and a crowd that never sits.
The 1976 dance-pop song’s innate liveliness and upbeat rhythm made it a perfect candidate for Ryan’s curious hobby of turning these kinds of songs into calming folk versions.
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Followers of Ryan’s channel immediately swooned over the version, hoping that major streaming sites pick up on these renditions and make them available outside YouTube.
One commenter even said:
“Never thought dancing queen could make me wanna sleep next to a fireplace in the middle of the woods.”
And quite honestly, we never did too. Until now.
To catch up with the music pace of the 1970s, ABBA was already planning the release of new materials even if they’re fresh off their summer tour in Sweden in August of 1975. Around that time, the airwaves were blasting out “SOS” and “Mamma Mia”, catapulting the band into household names. But during that decade, most major acts were expected to release an album every year and ABBA was not an exception.
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Benny and Bjorn, the “B’s” in ABBA, got together and recorded three tracks but all with working titles. One of them was called “Tango” which turned into the iconic “Fernando.” The second track, called “Olle Olle” remained unreleased but the third one, named “Boogaloo” was intended for the dance floor. The working title itself suggested that it has something to do about dance rhythms.
And so, August of 1976, “Boogaloo” will come to be known as “Dancing Queen”.
ABBA shared on their website:
“It’s hard to tell when a hit is being made, you don’t always sense it. ‘Dancing Queen’ was an exception, we knew immediately it was going to be massive.”
And it was. No. 1 was the only spot “Dancing Queen” knew not only in Sweden and Britain, but countries as diverse as South Africa, New Zealand, Mexico, and the US. Radio stations were blasting out the song and the people never got tired of it.
It was catchy, euphoric, and the perfect background song at a time where everyone was embracing their carefree youth.
It’s also a feeling that Stacey Ryan’s version evoked but in a different way.
Now that the fans of the song are way beyond their years of disco, the soothing vocals and the serene plucked notes turned this anthem into a nostalgic moment where one can remember the infiniteness of their younger years, turning them instead as cherished memories.
Ryan also gave the same folk treatment to Earth, Wind, and Fire’s “September” and it’s as sweet and nostalgic as the “Dancing Queen” cover.
Watch how this musician turned one of the most iconic disco songs into a calming tune.
Please SHARE with your friends and family and enjoy the music together.
