Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose, won't you let me go down in my dreams, and...I'm (fifteen days--yikes!) late again....
[Blogger's Aside: Imagine my chagrin when I realized yesterday that I'm not two Jukebox posts behind but actually three. Sheee-it! Going to have to remedy that...
My introduction to this week's tune was when this week's artist debuted it on Saturday Night Live, with Howard Cosell (though I have to admit I did not remember that it was their American debut--just thought they happened to be the musical guest on that week's show). Howard Cosell (known much more for sports announcing than emceeing entertainment) was attempting to mimic the success of the bygone Ed Sullivan Show (he failed miserably as the show only lasted eighteen episodes), and I can remember him hyping the band as the next Beatles (if you're of a certain age, there was about a twenty year period after the Beatles debuted in America in 1964 where every pop band out of the U.K. was "the next Beatles"--unsurprisingly, none were). Oddly enough, though I remember liking the song immediately I didn't purchase a copy. The only version I have is one I downloaded from iTunes many years after the fact--one supposes, though, that it's better late than never....
The Bay City Rollers began in 1964, and the history of their band members is so convoluted and numerous it would take the length of a post (already long enough) at the very least to sort it all out. Suffice it to say that they're actually Scottish, their heyday was from the mid-seventies to the early eighties, and they sold a ton of records (estimated from 120 million to 300 million...which is quite the disparity). For their career, the Rollers released thirteen studio albums (with two #1's and a #3 and #4 in the U.K)., two live albums, ten compilations, and thirty-one singles (with ten top ten singles in Great Britain including two #1's, and three top ten songs in the U.S. with one #1). Sadly, two members of what is called the classic lineup (see heyday above) have passed away. The band became the Rollers for a spell after petering out and then joined the oldies circuit in numerous incarnations with one of them still touring today.
Fun Fact: The Bay City Rollers were originally the Saxons but wanted a name that sounded more Americanized as they crawled their way up the ladder of success. The band settled on Rollers but wanted an American name in front of it. They tossed a dart at a map of the U.S., and it originally landed on Arkansas. Not fond of that one (and what a wise choice that was--The Arkansas Rollers sounds like a half-assed country and western band), they threw the dart again and it landed near Bay City, Michigan--and a band name was born.
"Saturday Night" was the fourth single from the Rollers 1974 debut album, the rather citcularly entitled Rollin'. The song did not chart in the U.K., but nearly a year later was released as their first single in America and promptly climbed to #1 (with a bullet!). It also hit #1 in Canada--so many cools kids in the Great White North! The album reached #1 in the U.K. but was not released here. An album called Bay City Rollers (a mishmash of their first three albums) was released in the U.S. to capitalize on the success of the single, and it peaked at #20.
The one trait of this song that I would like to call out is the complete and utter genius of spelling out "Saturday" and following it with a rousing, crowd screaming "night," and then using it several times throughout the song. Rhythmic, rollicking, catchy as all hell, and easy to remember--the perfect pop music moment. The rest of the song is a delightful paean to dancing with your baby on a Saturday night (which, truth be told, I know nothing about, but it sounds fun). Sometimes a great pop song is just a great pop song and "Saturday Night" is every bit a great pop song.
Lyric Sheet: "Gonna rock it up, roll it up/Do it all, have a ball/Saturday night, Saturday night..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
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