The head of Arista Records, Clive Davis, heard the song's demo, and in turn passed it to Swedish producers Douglas Carr and Denniz Pop, as he wanted something different from Happy Nation.
The song was recorded at a loud volume, which caused the producers Pop, Douglas Carr, and Jonas Berggren, to lower the sound by three decibels during audio mastering.
[14] The song initially begins with the sounds of a hand clap, kick drum, and snare over a four bar beat, which was sampled from "Shack Up" by American funk group Banbarra.
[18] Additionally, the song was a top-10 hit also in Austria (3),[19] Belgium (5),[20] France (5),[21] Ireland (2),[22] Italy (9),[23] Lithuania (2),[24] the Netherlands (3),[25] Norway (5),[26] Scotland (2),[27] Sweden (2),[28] Switzerland (4),[29] and the United Kingdom (2).
[42] In 1994, Music & Media published an assessment of the chart performance of "The Sign", which stated that it "entered Border Breakers at number ten on November 21, 1993, due to crossover airplay in Central Europe.
"[43] AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated that the success of singles such as "The Sign" was attributed to "relentless" beats and an "incessantly catchy" hook.
[45] Chuck Campbell from Scripps Howard News Service claimed that "The Sign" "could be a bigger hit" than "All That She Wants", due to its "infectious Europop energy and cosmic synths set to a reggae beat".
[11] Writing for the Dance Update column of Music Week, James Hamilton described it as a "US smash typical 96.7bpm cod-reggae jogger".
[46] Jim Farber from New York Daily News compared the song's "dinky synths, impish dance beats and miniaturized vocals" to musicians from the 1980s such as A Flock of Seagulls and Falco.
[47] Neil Strauss from The New York Times wrote that Ace of Base used "a deceptively mystical hook over a minimal bass line" to create the song.
[12] A reviewer from People acknowledged that tunes like "The Sign" "prove Ace of Base to be more substantive than a mere ABBA clone.
[49] The Rolling Stone Album Guide compared "The Sign" to Gloria Gaynor's 1978 song "I Will Survive", writing that it was "the wisest, catchiest, most triumphant kiss-off".
[53] Tom Doyle from Smash Hits gave "The Sign" two out of five in his review, stating that the reggae beat, saxophone, and tune were similar to "All That She Wants".
[54] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, David Thigpen described it as "a wasteland of neutered hip-hop and lumbering dance rhythms", criticizing Linn Berggren's vocals as "inert" and "colorless".
Seabrook concluded that it had an influential impact on pop music, suggesting that "a Swedish hit factory for US and British artists had never happened before.
[64] Billboard magazine ranked "The Sign" at number 65 on their 2018 ranking of All-Time Top 100 Songs,[65] stating in a separate article that it "led pop into a new era, putting Sweden on the map as a credible hitmaking hub, pushing electronic production closer to the forefront of popular music and helping ignite a collaborative approach to songwriting that has become an industry standard".
[67] The song was sung by fictional a cappella group the Barden Bellas in the 2012 film Pitch Perfect and appears on the soundtrack for the movie.
[70] Indie rock band The Mountain Goats included a cover of "The Sign" by Ace of Base on their 1995 EP Songs For Peter Hughes.
[citation needed] It features the Ace of Base members singing amidst romantic and joyful images; "The Sign" was depicted as a computer generated ankh and a djed.
[51] Erric Torres from Pitchfork noted that "the charming, greenscreen-heavy video for "The Sign" secured constant rotation on MTV, a vital source of exposure that inspired impostor groups bearing names like Bass of Spades and Box of Laces.