Let's Dance!

Late last month, McCain and Obama disclosed their top ten songs to Blender Magazine. Frankly, the two lists couldn't be any more different. Since then, McCain has taken a rash of crap from the press over two of his selections: Dancing Queen and Take A Chance On Me, both by the Swedish group ABBA. He ranked them #1 and #3, respectively.

In an interview this week with Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute, McCain again found himself defending the Euro-pop icons and his fondness for their '70s-era cuts. According to a McCain campaign press release, the exchange went something like this:

Isaacson: "What were you thinking?"

McCain: "If there is anything I am lacking in, I've got to tell you, it is taste in music and art and other great things in life. I've got to say that a lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane and never caught up again. ... Now look, everybody says, 'I hate ABBA. Oh ABBA, how terrible! Blah blah blah. How come everybody goes to 'Mamma Mia?' Huh? I mean really, seriously, huh? 'I hate ABBA, they're no good, you know.' Well, everybody goes. They've been selling out for years. ... But I make no excuses for my taste in music."

In McCain's defense, he did enter an arena this week with Gonna Fly Now (of "Rocky" fame) blaring over the PA system. We're totally down with that.

-- Sean Bowditch

4:36 PM ET | 08-15-2008 | permalink

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