"The Ballroom Blitz" (often called "Ballroom Blitz") is a song by British
glam rock band
The Sweet, written by
Nicky Chinn and
Mike Chapman. The song reached number one in Canada, number two in the
UK Singles Chart and the Australian Chart, and number five on the US
Billboard Hot 100. It remains an enduring favourite, with more than 90 million streams on
Spotify alone by the end of 2022.[8]
Background
"The Ballroom Blitz" was inspired by an incident on 27 January 1973 when the band were performing at the Grand Hall in
Kilmarnock,
Scotland, and were driven offstage by a
bottling.[9]
History and description
The song was recorded on 11–12 June 1973 at Audio International Studio, 18 Rodmarton Street, London,[10][11] and released as a single in September 1973.
The song appeared on the US and Canadian versions of Desolation Boulevard but never appeared on a Sweet album in the UK, other than hits compilations.[12]
The initial guitar and drum riff of the song has similarity to a 1963 song by
Bobby Comstock called "Let's Stomp".[13]
Other covers include
Krokus in 1984, the
Surf Punks on their 1988 album Oh No! Not Them Again, acoustic punk band Calibretto 13 in 2000, and
Tia Carrere on the
soundtrack to Wayne's World in 1992.[17][18] In 2016,
The Struts recorded it for the soundtrack of film The Edge of Seventeen.[19] In 2020, industrial metal band
3Teeth released Guns Akimbo, a two-track set that included a cover version of "The Ballroom Blitz". The song was previously featured in the 2019 action comedy film Guns Akimbo.[20]
In popular culture
The words "she thinks she's the passionate one" from the song are dubbed into the
Beastie Boys song "
Hey Ladies".[21]
Ohi Ho Bang Bang (a one-off project of
Holger Hiller, Karl Bonnie of
Renegade Soundwave and video artist Akiko Hada) released a 12" single and a
CD Video in 1988. "The Three" (a remix of their song "The Two") samples "Ballroom Blitz" extensively, especially the drumming from the intro.[22]
^Salaverri, Fernando. Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002.
ISBN84-8048-639-2.
^Hallberg, Eric (1993). Eric Hallberg presenterar Kvällstoppen i P 3: Sveriges radios topplista över veckans 20 mest sålda skivor 10. 7. 1962 - 19. 8. 1975. Drift Musik. p. 130.
ISBN9163021404.