Reception
"Dancing Queen" was a massive hit. It became ABBA's only No. 1 in the United States in April 1977. It also hit No. 1 in at least 13 other countries worldwide: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, West Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and Rhodesia. "Dancing Queen" also reached the Top 5 in Austria, Canada, Finland, France and Switzerland. The track peaked at No. 14 in Italy, where ABBA never achieved the same degree of popularity as elsewhere. "Dancing Queen" was also extremely successful in Norway, where it charted for 32 weeks on the Norwegian charts (VG-lista Top 10), making it the 11th best-performing single of all time in that country.The song sold over three million copies. "Dancing Queen" was the last of three consecutive #1s the band had in the UK in 1976, following "Mamma Mia" and "Fernando" earlier in the year.
In 1992, the song was re-released in the UK, as Erasure sparked an ABBA revival after the success of their Abba-esque EP topping the UK charts. The re-issued "Dancing Queen" reached No. 16 in the UK in September 1992.
In 2000, "Dancing Queen" came fourth in a Channel 4 television poll of "The 100 Best Number Ones". It was chosen as number 148 as part of the 365 Songs of the Century list. It is also ranked No. 171 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, the only ABBA song on the list. That same year, it made VH1's 100 Greatest Dance Songs in Rock & Roll at #97. Also in 2000, editors of The Rolling Stone with MTV compiled a list of the best 100 pop songs. "Dancing Queen" was the 12th highest placed song from the 1970s.
On 9 November 2002, the results of a poll, "Top 50 Favourite UK #1's", was broadcast on Radio 2, celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Official UK Charts Company. 188,357 listeners voted and "Dancing Queen" came out at #8. On 5 December 2010, Britain's ITV broadcast the results of a poll to determine The Nation's Favourite ABBA Song, in which "Dancing Queen" placed at #2.
In 2009, the British performing rights group Phonographic Performance Limited celebrated its 75th anniversary by listing the 75 songs that have played most in Great Britain on the radio, in clubs and on jukeboxes. "Dancing Queen" was number eight on the list.
Former U.S. presidential candidate John McCain named "Dancing Queen" as his favorite song in a top 10 list submitted to Blender Magazine in August 2008. In August 2008, "Dancing Queen" surpassed the 500,000 mark for digital sales in the US (512,000).
In August 2012 listeners to the 1970s-themed UK radio station Smooth 70s voted Dancing Queen as their favourite hit from the decade.
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