You can dance. You can Jive.

What does pure happiness sound like?

Well, to me, at the age of 13 years in 1976 it was "Dancing Queen" by the Swedish Euro-poppers, ABBA.

I was an avid listener of the music charts, a typical thing for a brand new teenager, in fact of only a matter of weeks, to do.

I must have been a bit depressed about the onset of what I anticipated to be a traumatic period in my adolescence from all of the media coverage of angst ridden teens and those "know you body" leaflets which had warned me about some interesting but potentially disturbing developments in my physique from sprouting hairs to breaking voice and lots of other changes which were too scary to contemplate.

I was for some reason also very superstitious and more than convinced that my 13th year would be my last.

The pop Music scene was an outlet for my troubles.

I had not yet decided on which genre to belong to and a sampling of the UK singles chart for early August 1976 gave no firm guidance.

The number one spot was occupied by Elton John and Kiki Dee singing "Don't go breaking my heart". In close pursuit in what seemed like a very fluid change in chart positions from week to week were Dr Hook, David Dundas putting his jeans on, Wings, Billy Ocean and Candi Staton.

Their styles varied from middle of the road to rhythm and blues, anthemic, country and western, ponderous transatlantic, Britrock and disco. They were not , to my young mind, actually representative of  any meaningful lifestyle trends to follow and it would be a few more years before the emergence of the strong identities of Punk, New Wave , Mods , Heavy Metal and New Romantics, all at one time or another movements I could identify myself with quite easily.

ABBA had been around for the previous couple of years after winning Eurovision in 1974 with "Waterloo". Many may have regarded them as one hit wonders or an early eurotrash manufactured group but their song writing and melodic qualities began to mark them out as something with a bit more of a shelf-life.

Released in the third week of August of 1976 the Dancing Queen single entered the UK charts at number 23.

It was not an instant success and by the following week, as I was listening in to the usual BBC Radio One Sunday chart show, the dance pop/disco music sound, quite different in the crowded Top 20 had only advanced 7 positions.

It was not until the last day of that month, exactly 40 years to this very day, that it reached the coveted Number One spot.

The song was the creation of the two male group members, Benny and Bjorn assisted by someone called Stig, typically Swedish. It has been an attempt to reproduce and build on the sounds of George McCrae in his "Rock Your Baby" track and with a sampling of the drumming on the 1972 album, Gumbo, by Dr John.

In all of the impressive playlist of ABBA the group were totally confident even in the early stages of the writing process that Dancing Queen would be their best selling single. It would stay in top position for 6 weeks only being displaced by "Pussycat", a sultry country ballad by Mississippi but it  successfully held off the intense competition from Rod Stewart, The Bay City Rollers, The Wurzels and The Real Thing over that one and a half months.

What made me happy when the song was playing?

Well it was ,and still is ,a tune that made you want to just dance, even in my awkward 13th year when things like feelings and sexuality were as confusing as what to do with that first blackhead spot or emerging body hair.

I was obviously not alone in my sensitivities or emotions engendered by the song. It was a worldwide phenomena with sales of an estimated 1.12 million which gave it platinum status.

Dancing Queen has been able to re-invent itself for successive generations and was re-released in 1992. It featured in the soundtrack of the 1994 Australian film "Muriels Wedding" but of course the box office and stage hit of Mamma Mia in 2008 brought it right back into global popularity, although it has never left it.

It has featured in many, if not all ,of the usual end of year, decade or millennial Super Charts with a listing as #174 in the all time greatest songs, #97 for best ever dance songs, #8 most requested juke box track and #4th in the top 100 number ones. It has also figured in an alternative chart of the most misheard lyrics as in "See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen". Cover versions have been released by the Sex Pistols and U2. The song remains as an anthem for the LGBT community.

The highest and most meaningful accolade however is that of best floor filler beating into second and third place the none too shabby Michael Jackson and The Beatles.