The Ballroom Blitz

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For other uses, see Ballroom Blitz (disambiguation) .
"The Ballroom Blitz"
Cover of the 1973 German single issue
Single by The Sweet
from the album Desolation Boulevard (US version)
B-side
  • "Rock and Roll Disgrace" (RCA)
  • "Restless" (Capitol)
Released 14 September 1973 (UK) [1] June 1975  ( 1975-06 ) (US)
Recorded 1973
Genre
Length 4 : 06
Label RCA (UK)
Capitol (US)
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
The Sweet singles chronology
"Hell Raiser"
(1973) 		" The Ballroom Blitz "
(1973) 		"Teenage Rampage"
(1974)
Audio sample
"The Ballroom Blitz"
Promo video
"The Ballroom Blitz" on YouTube

" 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 .

Background [ edit ]

"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 . [8]

History and description [ edit ]

The song was recorded on 11?12 June 1973 at Audio International Studio, 18 Rodmarton Street, London, [9] [10] 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. [11]

The initial guitar and drum riff of the song has similarity to a 1963 song by Bobby Comstock called "Let's Stomp". [12]

Cover versions [ edit ]

An early cover of "The Ballroom Blitz" was by the Les Humphries Singers in 1974, the first German single to reach #1 in New Zealand. [13] In 1979, the song was covered by the Damned , which featured Lemmy from Motorhead on bass guitar. It was released as a B-side to " I Just Can't Be Happy Today " and featured as a bonus track on their CD reissue of Machine Gun Etiquette . [14] [15]

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. [16] [17] In 2003, the song was covered by the female Estonian rock band of Vanilla Ninja . In 2016, The Struts recorded it for the soundtrack of film The Edge of Seventeen . [18] 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 . [19]

In popular culture [ edit ]

The song was written following a bottling incident at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock , Scotland
  • The words "she thinks she's the passionate one" from the song are dubbed into the Beastie Boys song " Hey Ladies ". [20]
  • 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. [21]

Personnel [ edit ]

Chart performance [ edit ]

Certifications [ edit ]

Region Certification Certified units /sales
Canada ( Music Canada ) [46] Gold 75,000 ^
United Kingdom ( BPI ) [47] Silver 250,000 ^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References [ edit ]

  1. ^ "BPI" .
  2. ^ Savage, Jon (1 February 2013). "The 20 best glam-rock songs of all time" . The Guardian . Retrieved 16 February 2019 .
  3. ^ Harris, Keith; Gehr, Richard (29 August 2016). "20 Songs That Defined the Early Seventies" . Rolling Stone . Retrieved 16 February 2019 .
  4. ^ Wroe, Nicholas (12 September 2014). "That's neat: Chinnichap's blitz of 70s hits become a musical" . The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 16 February 2019 .
  5. ^ Breithaupt, Don; Breithaupt, Jeff (October 15, 1996). "Planet of the Apes: Hard Rock". Precious and Few - Pop Music in the Early '70s . St. Martin's Griffin . p. 106. ISBN   031214704X .
  6. ^ Cantwell, David (4 November 1998). "Power Pop It Ain't" . MTV News . Retrieved 21 March 2020 .
  7. ^ Coffman, Tim (19 April 2023). "The Story Behind The Song: Sweet's brutal true tale 'Ballroom Blitz' " . Far Out . Retrieved 10 May 2023 .
  8. ^ Dimery, Robert (5 December 2011). 1001 Songs: You Must Hear Before You Die . Octopus. p. 886. ISBN   978-1-84403-717-9 . Retrieved 13 October 2015 .
  9. ^ Beat Instrumental & Songwriting & Recording . Beat Publications. 1978. p. 88 . Retrieved 14 October 2015 .
  10. ^ Burns, Phil. "Recorded at Audio International" . Philsbook.com . Retrieved 14 October 2015 .
  11. ^ Popoff, Martin (15 August 2014). The Big Book of Hair Metal: The Illustrated Oral History of Heavy Metal's Debauched Decade . Voyageur Press. p. 20. ISBN   978-0-7603-4546-7 . Retrieved 14 October 2015 .
  12. ^ Swanson, Dave (27 February 2013). "Top 10 Sweet Songs" . Ultimateclassicrock.com . Diffuser Network . Retrieved 13 October 2015 .
  13. ^ The Complete New Zealand Music Charts, 1966-2006: Singles, Albums, DVDs, Compilations . Maurienne House. 1 January 2007. p. 14. ISBN   978-1-877443-00-8 . Retrieved 11 October 2015 .
  14. ^ Waksman, Steve (4 February 2009). This Ain't the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk . University of California Press. p.  327 . ISBN   978-0-520-94388-9 . Retrieved 10 October 2015 .
  15. ^ Kilmister, Lemmy (8 June 2012). White Line Fever: Lemmy: The Autobiography . Simon and Schuster. p. 120. ISBN   978-1-4711-1271-3 . Retrieved 11 October 2015 .
  16. ^ Mark Allan Powell (2002). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music . Hendrickson Publishers. p. 130. ISBN   978-1-56563-679-8 . Retrieved 11 October 2015 .
  17. ^ Strong, Martin Charles; Griffin, Brendon (2008). Lights, camera, sound tracks . Canongate. p. 396. ISBN   978-1-84767-003-8 . Retrieved 11 October 2015 .
  18. ^ "The Struts cover Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz" for The Edge of Seventeen soundtrack ? listen" . Consequence.net . 3 November 2016 . Retrieved 27 November 2018 .
  19. ^ BraveWords (August 24, 2020). "3TEETH Releases Guns Akimbo Album Featuring Covers Of "Ballroom Blitz" And "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" " . BraveWords . Retrieved 2024-02-19 .
  20. ^ "Hey Ladies - Paul's Boutique Samples and References List at paulsboutique.info" . Retrieved 2022-09-27 .
  21. ^ "Ohi Ho Bang Bang - Discogs" . www.discogs.com . Retrieved 4 June 2020 .
  22. ^ "Cash Box - International Best Sellers" (PDF) . worldradiohistory.com . Cash Box. 16 February 1974. p. 50.
  23. ^ "Top 40 Australian Singles" . Go-Set . 19 January 1974 . Retrieved 7 March 2023 .
  24. ^ a b "National Top 100 Singles for 1974" . Kent Music Report . 30 December 1974 . Retrieved 15 January 2022 – via Imgur .
  25. ^ Hung, Steffen. "Forum - 1970 (ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts)" . Australian-charts.com . Retrieved 26 June 2016 .
  26. ^ " The Sweet ? The Ballroom Blitz" (in German). O3 Austria Top 40 . Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  27. ^ " The Sweet ? The Ballroom Blitz" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50 . Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  28. ^ " The Sweet ? The Ballroom Blitz" (in French). Ultratop 50 . Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  29. ^ List of number-one singles of 1975 (Canada)
  30. ^ "Le Detail par Artiste" . InfoDisc (in French). Select "The Sweet" from the artist drop-down menu . Retrieved 14 February 2024 .
  31. ^ " Offiziellecharts.de ? The Sweet ? The Ballroom Blitz" (in German) . GfK Entertainment charts . Retrieved 10 October 2015. To see peak chart position, click "TITEL VON The Sweet"
  32. ^ "Tiu a Toppnum" . Visir . 11 February 1974. p. 16.
  33. ^ "irishcharts.ie search results" . Retrieved 2024-02-14 .
  34. ^ " The Sweet ? The Ballroom Blitz" (in Dutch). Single Top 100 . Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  35. ^ " Nederlandse Top 40 ? The Sweet" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40 . Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  36. ^ " The Sweet ? The Ballroom Blitz" . VG-lista . Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  37. ^ Currin, Brian. "South African Rock Lists Website - SA Charts 1965 - 1989 Songs (A-B)" . www.rock.co.za . Retrieved 20 April 2018 .
  38. ^ Salaverri, Fernando. Solo exitos: ano a ano, 1959?2002 . ISBN   84-8048-639-2 .
  39. ^ Hallberg, Eric (1993). Eric Hallberg presenterar Kvallstoppen i P 3: Sveriges radios topplista over veckans 20 mest salda skivor 10. 7. 1962 - 19. 8. 1975 . Drift Musik. p. 130. ISBN   9163021404 .
  40. ^ " The Sweet ? The Ballroom Blitz" . Swiss Singles Chart . Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  41. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100" . Official Charts Company . Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  42. ^ "Sweet Ballroom Blitz Chart History" . Billboard . Retrieved 11 February 2019 .
  43. ^ "Top Selling Singles for 1973". Sounds . London, England: Spotlight Publications: 4. 5 January 1974.
  44. ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 3183" . RPM . Library and Archives Canada . 17 July 2013 . Retrieved 10 October 2015 .
  45. ^ Top Records of 1975 , Billboard , Section II, December 27, 1975. p. 38. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  46. ^ "Canadian single certifications ? Sweet ? Ballroom Blitz" . Music Canada . Retrieved 16 June 2023 .
  47. ^ "British single certifications ? Sweet ? Ballroom Blitz" . British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 16 June 2023 .

External links [ edit ]

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