The Ballroom Blitz

For other uses, see Ballroom Blitz (disambiguation).

"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.

"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	Glam rock[2][3] hard rock[4][5] power pop[6] pop rock[7] heavy metal
Length	4:06
Label	RCA (UK) Capitol (US)
Songwriter(s)	Nicky Chinn Mike Chapman
Producer(s)	Phil Wainman
The Sweet singles chronology
"Hell Raiser" (1973) "The Ballroom Blitz" (1973) "Teenage Rampage" (1974)
Audio sample
"The Ballroom Blitz" file help
Promo video
"The Ballroom Blitz" on YouTube

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.^[8]

History and description

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

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 Motörhead 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

The song was written following a bottling incident at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock, Scotland

• This song was featured in the eighth episode of the thirty-second season of the animated TV show The Simpsons; the episode’s name being “The Road to Cincinnati”. The scene this song is featured in, two characters, Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers have a fight in a dining hall (a sort of “ballroom blitz”) over negative remarks made about the former by the latter.^{[citation needed]}
• The song is used over a battle with several hooker vampires in the movie Bordello of Blood with Dennis Miller's character Rafe using super soakers filled with holy water.^{[citation needed]}
• 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]
• In October 2022 Kym Marsh and professional dance partner Graziano di Prima danced a quickstep to the song for the 20th series of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.^[22][23]

Personnel

• Brian Connolly – lead vocals
• Steve Priest – bass guitar, co-lead and backing vocals
• Andy Scott – guitar, backing vocals
• Mick Tucker – drums, backing vocals

Chart performance

Weekly charts Chart (1973-1976) Peak position Argentina (Cash Box)[24] 2 Australia (Go-Set National Top 40)[25] 1 Australia (Kent Music Report)[26][27] 2 Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[28] 5 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[29] 2 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[30] 5 Canada RPM Top Singles[31] 1 Finland (Finnish Singles Charts) 10 France (IFOP)[32] 16 West Germany (GfK)[33] 1 Iceland (Vísir)[34] 1 Ireland (IRMA)[35] 1 Netherlands (Single Top 100)[36] 2 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[37] 4 Norway (VG-lista)[38] 2 South Africa (Springbok Radio SA Top 20)[39] 3 Spain (AFYVE)[40] 5 Sweden (Kvällstoppen)[41] 3 Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[42] 3 UK Singles (OCC)[43] 2 US Billboard Hot 100[44] 5

Year-end charts Chart (1973) Rank UK[45] 17 Chart (1974) Rank Australia (Kent Music Report)[26] 9 Chart (1975) Rank Canada[46] 22 US Billboard Hot 100[47] 16

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[48]	Gold	75,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[49]	Silver	250,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

1. "Michael Jackson , Thriller, Single". 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. Archived from the original on May 14, 2016. 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. "Kym Marsh & Graziano di Prima Quickstep to Ballroom Blitz by Sweet ✨ BBC Strictly 2022". October 22, 2022 – via YouTube.
23. McLaughlin, Charlotte (October 22, 2022). "Kym Marsh admits it is 'difficult' doing Strictly while holding down two jobs". The Standard.
24. "Cash Box - International Best Sellers" (PDF). worldradiohistory.com. Cash Box. 16 February 1974. p. 50.
25. "Top 40 Australian Singles". Go-Set. 19 January 1974. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
26. "National Top 100 Singles for 1974". Kent Music Report. 30 December 1974. Retrieved 15 January 2022 – via Imgur.
27. Hung, Steffen. "Forum - 1970 (ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts)". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
28. "The Sweet – The Ballroom Blitz" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
29. "The Sweet – The Ballroom Blitz" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
30. "The Sweet – The Ballroom Blitz" (in French). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
31. List of number-one singles of 1975 (Canada)
32. "Le Détail par Artiste". InfoDisc (in French). Select "The Sweet" from the artist drop-down menu. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
33. "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"
34. "Tíu á Toppnum". Vísir. 11 February 1974. p. 16.
35. "irishcharts.ie search results". Retrieved 2024-02-14.
36. "The Sweet – The Ballroom Blitz" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
37. "Nederlandse Top 40 – The Sweet" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
38. "The Sweet – The Ballroom Blitz". VG-lista. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
39. Currin, Brian. "South African Rock Lists Website - SA Charts 1965 - 1989 Songs (A-B)". www.rock.co.za. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
40. Salaverri, Fernando. Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
41. 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. ISBN 9163021404.
42. "The Sweet – The Ballroom Blitz". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
43. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
44. "Sweet Ballroom Blitz Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
45. "Top Selling Singles for 1973". Sounds. London, England: Spotlight Publications: 4. 5 January 1974.
46. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 3183". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
47. Top Records of 1975, Billboard, Section II, December 27, 1975. p. 38. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
48. "Canadian single certifications – Sweet – Ballroom Blitz". Music Canada. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
49. "British single certifications – Sweet – Ballroom Blitz". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 16 June 2023.

External links

• Sweet - The Ballroom Blitz on YouTube