(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Bay City Rollers - "Saturday Night"
Hit Number 1: January 3, 1976
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
1976 got off to a loud and commanding start. The first thing anyone would hear if they started listening to 1976's number one hits in order would be the chant "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!" Immediately "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers grabs your attention, and you know you're about to hear something fun. But as fun as the song is, it took a while for anything to happen with it. The Bay City Rollers were a Scottish boy band, and honestly they're one of the first true boy bands in pop music history. They first recorded the song in 1973 and released it that same year in the U.K., but surprisingly, it went nowhere. This version was sung by Nobby Clarke, who at the time was the Rollers' lead singer, but sometime down the line he was replaced by Les McKeown. The songwriters of "Saturday Night," Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, weren't ready to give up on the song yet, and they, along with the band, wanted to try to turn the song into a hit in the U.S. That's exactly what ended up happening.
The Rollers didn't just throw out Clarke's sung version again, they re-recorded the song with McKeown on lead vocals, which is the version that made it big in America. They first performed the song on an Ed Sullivan Show copycat show called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, which got them a lot of exposure to America, and where a lot Americans learned of not only the song, but the Rollers themselves. I doubt that McKeown was some big difference maker, as his performance on the song is what you'd expect from any boy band singer. It's okay, but not over the top, and nothing to write home about. For the most part that's what you could say about the song too. "Saturday Night" is a fun, exuberant song about hanging out with "your baby" on Saturday night, and generally just having a good time. That's all there is to the song, and it's nothing more than that. At least, that would be the case if it wasn't for the chant. Now I get it, some people might find the chant a little bit too cute and corny, but I think it's the lifeline of the song. If a song is going to get any attention, it has to have some kind of hook to get the listener, you know, listening. That chant grabs my attention, and it's impossible for me to ignore the rest of the song. "Powerful" really shouldn't be a word I use to describe this song, but the chant makes the song that way. That's why I'm so surprised the song did nothing in the band's native England. Maybe no one in England has fun on Saturday nights. I don't know.
Now let's talk about the idea of boy bands. No, I don't consider the Beatles or the Rolling Stones to be boy bands, because they rock out too much. Sure, the Beatles had that cutesy attire to them that most boy bands have, but again, they truly were a rock band more than anything else. The Bay City Rollers were not a rock band. They were a cutesy, teenage band that sang bubble gummy songs about teenage life. And that's pretty much what "Saturday Night" is. You can see in the video above, too, that they were screamed at by tons of teenage girls unable to control themselves, which is very reminiscent of the Beatles in 1964, but again, the Beatles aren't boy band material. I also think it doesn't take much talent to be a successful boy band, which the Beatles were drowning in talent. If it wasn't for that chant in "Saturday Night," I might find the song to be yet another overly cutesy and innocent song about having fun with your baby. But man, it's hard to resist that urge to chant along with the Rollers when they begin. "Saturday Night" is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine, I have to admit.
GRADE: 8/10
IN POP CULTURE:
"Saturday Night" was apparently the inspiration for the chant "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" chant in the Ramones' song "Blitzkrieg Bop." So, of course I'm going to put "Blitzkrieg Bop" as the IPC video for this one:
(I regret to inform that "Blitzkrieg Bop" never charted on the Hot 100, but I'm letting you all know it's clearly a 10 anyway. The Ramones' highest-charting single on the Hot 100 was "Rockaway Beach," which only made it to #66 in 1978. It's an 8)
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