By far, the most famous and enduring hit from Swedish band ABBA, Dancing Queen is one of those party songs that simply cannot be left out. The opening keyboard glissando is the most recognizable of any song written and is the cue to get up and start dancing (preferably like a queen). It’s no wonder that this song remains a favorite among women, yet, there are many men out there who are ashamed to admit their love for this song. However, over time, the song has become of the most loved gay songs and is a favorite within the gay community.

As with some other ABBA songs, Dancing Queen is an interesting mix between disco and pop, yet it is too pop to be disco and too disco to be pop. However, at the time of its release in 1976, the disco movement had just entered the mainstream worldwide and there was no shortage of disco songs ruling the charts. As a result, Dancing Queen became a massive hit worldwide reached number 1 on both the US and UK charts.

The song’s lyrics talk about a young woman, “only seventeen”, who goes out clubbing at night looking for a king. When she gets in the mood for a dance, she dances like a queen and dances so well that she has a lot of fun while attracting the attention of onlookers. However, at the same time, she is a player and teases with the men she attracts, leaving them behind after a little while.

There are a lot of people who can associate with what the lyrics are saying. However, I can guarantee that there are a lot of people who love this song but have not bothered to understand the meaning of the lyrics.

Nonetheless, it’s a wonderful song from the classic era of the 1970s that will forever be played at parties throughout the world. ABBA’s unique sound and talent shines through in Dancing Queen and leaves all of us mesmerised and wanting more.

Silly Love Songs is not a song that everyone will immediately like. In fact, many would say that it is a very poor effort from one of music’s greatest musicians, Sir Paul McCartney. Some have labeled it as very cheesy and have compared it to his effort with ‘Ebony and Ivory’ which he recorded with Stevie Wonder in the 80s. Despite the criticism the song received (and continues to), it became one of Wings’ highest-selling singles and one of the biggest-selling singles of the 1970s.

The strangest aspect of this song that people encounter is the “disco” feel of the song. The reason being that it was a genuine attempt from Paul McCartney to adapt to the disco movement at the time. In fact, McCartney was probably the first classic rock musician to try their luck with disco because shortly after, the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart also had a go with success.

The song’s irony is more profound if you take into account its origins. Apparently, according to most sources, when discussing the Beatles and songwriting efforts, John Lennon said that all that Paul wrote were ‘silly love songs.’ Paul responded by composing this song, and the great irony is that Silly Love Songs is a silly love song (according to music critics) on its own.

This song is also a prime example as to why Paul McCartney had the most successful musical career out of all the Beatles after their breakup in 1970. A musician’s ability to adapt to changing music styles is vital if they wish to remain popular over an extended period of time.

I personally find this song to be quite enjoyable and like to listen to it to chill out and relax. Of course, at first, like most people, I absolutely disliked this song. Firstly, because Paul was trying to sing disco, something he’d never done, and secondly, because it is cheesy (I have to admit it). However, I’ve seen through that now and hope you do so when you listen to Silly Love Songs.

Written by: Frank Farian
Released: 1978

US Charts: N/A
UK Charts: #2
Other Charts: #1 (Germany), #1 (Austria), #3 (Ireland), #8 (The Netherlands)

Addictive. Simply addictive. As I write this down, “Rasputin” by Boney M is the only thing that’s going through my head. I’ve just come back from a family friend’s party and this song really got people moving. And when I say moving, I mean going crazy over the dance floor. Ok, maybe the old folks  recalled their younger days when this song started playing but even I couldn’t resist getting on the dance floor and doing my thing. It’s such a catchy and addictive disco song that I cannot comprehend how it did not become a hit in the US in 1978, the height of the disco phenomenon.

Tonight wasn’t the first time I’d heard the song either. However, this time, I decided to investigate the exact title of the song. Normally, I would find the title in the chorus somewhere, however, the chorus is not easy to understand at first. All I could hear was “Ra Ra Ras…followed by some other word.” So I decided to go through Boney M’s discography and there I found it: Rasputin!

Rasputin is about Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin who was the friend and advisor of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Rasputin also allegedly healed the son of the Tzar’s son and this allegedly endeared him to the boy’s mother, Alexandra, the Tsaritsa of Russia. Even though this has not been confirmed to be true, “Rasputin” describes him as a mystic, playboy and having a lot of political power in Russia given his close relationship with the Tzar. The whole song covers Rasputin’s life, his actions, his influence and finally his death. Strange, yet interesting for a disco song.

The beginning of the song is a sample from Turkish folk song, while the rest of the song has a Slavic, Russian feel, which is appropriate given the subject matter. The rhythm is simply addictive once you get into it and you wish that the song would go on for much longer. The song became Boney M’s 6th consecutive number 1 song in Germany while reaching number 2 in the UK.

“Rasputin” will have to rate as one of the top 5 or even top 3 disco songs. That’s my opinion. What do you think?

Please comment on this post below.

Written by: Frank Farian
Released: 1977

US Charts: #96
UK Charts: #2
Other Charts: #1 (Germany), #1 (Sweden), #1 (The Netherlands)

One of the forgotten bands from the disco era of the late 70s is Boney M and this is probably because they never had substantial commercial success in the United States. Outside of the US, they were huge international stars, all across Europe, the Soviet Union and all across Asia. For some unknown reason, they were never able to break the American market despite being in my opinion, one of the best disco groups of all time. “Ma Baker” was one of their biggest hits.

Boney M was Frank Farian’s first music project before his prominent fall from grace in the wake of the Milli Vanilli lip-syncing scandal in the late 80’s. Not surprisingly, Boney M worked the same way. Farian surprised himself in 1974 when he achieved a hit single in the Netherlands under the name Boney M. In order to capitalize on this success, he needed people to front and promote his newly-formed band.

As a result, he recruited 4 photogenetic “singers” from Afro-Caribbean background (3 female and a male) to lipsync the songs he would mainly record from his studio. People did know that Boney M was mainly a lip syncing group, however, since it was common practice in the disco era, it was tolerated and accepted as the norm. This allowed the group to become very successful over a 10 year period, especially outside the West.

The tune of “Ma Baker” is not original as it was copied from a classic Tunisian folkloric song called Sidi Mansur. This was subsequently rewritten as a disco tune and incorporated spoken parts at the beginning of the song and in the middle. Farian originally envisaged to call this song Ma Barker, after the legendary outlaw from the 1930s. However, he changed it to Ma Baker because “it sounded better” even though the lyrics are about Ma Barker.

“Ma Baker” is a classic disco tune to dance to from Boney M. Enjoy!

Lyrics can be accessed here.

Chords can be accessed here.

Feel free to comment on this song and/or my review below.