The Ballroom Blitz

src: i.ytimg.com

"The Ballroom Blitz" (often called "Ballroom Blitz") is a song by the British rock band The Sweet, written and produced by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman.

Video The Ballroom Blitz

Background

"The Ballroom Blitz" was inspired by an incident on 27 January 1973 when the band was performing at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock, Scotland and were driven offstage by a barrage of bottles.

Recorded at Audio International Studio, 18 Rodmarton Street, London.

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.

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

Maps The Ballroom Blitz

Cover versions

The first known cover of "The Ballroom Blitz" was by the Les Humphries Singers in 1975, which was the first German single to reach #1 in New Zealand. 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. Other covers include renditions by Krokus in 1984, Christian rock band Calibretto 13 on their album Enter the Danger Brigade in 2000, Tia Carrere on the soundtrack to Wayne's World in 1992, and thrash metal band Nuclear Assault on their 1991 album Out of Order. In 2016, The Struts recorded a cover of the song for the soundtrack of The Edge of Seventeen. In 2017, The Featherz covered the song on their debut album Five Year Itch. This was originally intended for the CD edition of their 2016 single Forget All You Know.

src: 3.bp.blogspot.com

In popular culture

The song was played in the 1992 film Wayne's World; Tia Carrere was the lead singer for the "band" (Crucial Taunt) that performed it in the film.
The lyrics "she thinks she's the passionate one" from the song are dubbed into the Beastie Boys song "Hey Ladies."
The song was featured in the 1996 movie Bordello of Blood.
The song was featured in the trailer for the 1997 movie Home Alone 3.
The song was featured in a 2004 commercial for the Mitsubishi Galant.
The song appears in the 2005 Italian movie Romanzo Criminale.
The song was heavily featured in promotional material for the 2016 movie Suicide Squad.
Since June 2016, the song has been used in public information films on the subject of smart meters surrounding gas and electricity use.
A cover version by WaveGroup Sound is used in the Rock Band video game.
The song appears in the 2003 film Daddy Day Care.
The song appears in the 2007 film The Sandlot: Heading Home.
The song is used in an episode of the cartoon Regular Show (Season 4, episode 10) entitled "T.G.I. Tuesday" first airing on January 7, 2013.
A multiplayer map from the 2016 video game Battlefield 1 is titled "Ballroom Blitz" set in France.
The opening lyrics were parodied in The The's 1989 song, "Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)" ("Are you ready, Jesus?" "Uh-huh!" "Buddha?" "Yeah!" "Mohammad?" "OK!" "Well alright fellas, let's goooooooo!")
A cover version by The Struts is featured in the soundtrack of the 2016 film The Edge of Seventeen.