The Ballroom Blitz

Album

Desolation Boulevard

Label

Capitol Records

Genre

Glam rock

Composer(s)

Nicky Chinn;Mike Chapman

Entered Chart

Jun 14, 1975

Peak Date

Oct 18, 1975

Released

14 September 1973 (UK)[1] June 1975 (US)

Recorded

1973

Catalog #

Capitol 4055

B-Side

Restless

This was written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who wrote many glam rock hits like this one. They also wrote Sweet's "Blockbuster," Suzi Quatro's "Devil Gate Drive" and Tony Basil's "Mickey." This song tells a rather opaque story of band performing when mayhem breaks out in the audience, resulting in a "ballroom blitz." In 1973, Sweet performed at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock, Scotland, where they were driven offstage by a barrage of bottles. It's likely that when the songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman heard about this donnybrook, they used it as the basis for the song, although Chapman put a wet blanket on that story when he told Goldmine: "We were trying to write songs that had no meaning, and 'Ballroom Blitz' was one of them. I suggested the title and we sat down and wrote a song about a guy having a horrifyingly bad dream that his latest record hadn't made it – he was in this ballroom, in a discotheque, and maybe he was on drugs because he started hallucinating. They were pretty funny words to that song, although I've forgotten the real version because I did this horrifyingly dirty version of that song." We can only speculate as to what the girl in the corner was doing in the original lyric. In America, this was the second hit for Sweet, following "Little Willy." They had more success and notoriety in their native UK, where their outlandish lyrics caused some controversy. In America they were more of a curiosity, delivering fun, relatively mindless entertainment. The band members do a roll call at the beginning of this song, which is a great way to introduce themselves to listeners. Lead singer Brian Connolly asks: Are you ready Steve? (bass player Steve Priest), Andy? (guitarist Andy Scott), Mick? (drummer Mick Tucker). In 2000, this was used in La Vie Ne Me Fait Pas Peur, a French movie about a group of girls who don't speak English - the only words they know are "Ballroom Blitz." Quentin Tarantino was considering using this song in the ear scene in Reservoir Dogs but went with the Stealers Wheel's "Stuck In The Middle With You" instead. >> The 1992 movie Wayne's World famously revived "Bohemian Rhapsody" in America, but it also brought "Ballroom Blitz" back to life. In the film, Wayne's love interest, Cassandra (Tia Carrere), performs the song with her band Crucial Taunt. As Wayne says, they wail.

Are you ready Steve? Uh-huh
Andy? Yeah
Mick? Okay
Alright fellas, let's go

Oh it's been getting so hard
Living with the things you do to me, uh huh
My dreams are getting so strange
I'd like to tell you everything I see

Oh, I see a man at the back as a matter of fact
His eyes are as red as the sun
And the girl in the corner let no one ignore her
'Cause she thinks she's the passionate one

Oh yeah, it was like lightning
Everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing
And they all started grooving

Yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
And the man in the back said everyone attack
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said boy I want to warn you
It'll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz

I'm reaching out for something
Touching nothing's all I ever do
Oh I softly call you over
When you appear there's nothing left of you, uh huh

And the man in the back is ready to crack
As he raises his hands to the sky
And the girl in the corner is everyone's mourner
She could kill you with a wink of her eye

Oh yeah it was electric
So perfectly hectic
And the band started leaving
'Cause they all stopped breathing

Yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
And the man in the back said everyone attack
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said boy I want to warn you
It'll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz

Oh yeah, it was like lightning
Everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing
And they all started grooving

Yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
And the man in the back said everyone attack
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said boy I want to warn you
It'll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz

It's it's a ballroom blitz
It's it's a ballroom blitz
It's it's a ballroom blitz
Yeah, it's a ballroom blitz