Where were you in 1976? I for one, like millions of others, was listening to The Bay City Rollers, notably proclaimed at the time by some critics to be the “next Beatles.” While that enthusiasm may have been a little ambitious, the Rollers did turn out to be a short-lived smash and veritable cultural sensation that prompted fans, amongst other things, to don the lads’ trademark tartan from their Scottish homeland.
We’re remembering the band this week after the passing of frontman Les McKeown on April 20 at age 65.
While the band had risen to stardom in the UK with a string of hits in the early ‘70s, it wasn’t until “Saturday Night” in 1975 that global stardom followed, the song reaching No. 1 in many markets, including the US and, in early ’76, Canada.
The band reunited in 2015 for a series of concerts and there’s a version still going, but they remain very much a marker of time and place in the mid ‘70s, not unlike the band they were compared to – The Beatles – over a decade earlier.
Check out this version of their signature song (“S-A, T-U-R, D-A-Y, night!”) on the TV show “Midnight Special,” with an amazing bonus intro by Wolfman Jack, who hilariously reminds us that, wherever the band played, “little people wearing plaid pants seem to come popping out of holes in the ground… screaming all the while!”
Excuse me now, I have to go and find that 45 (but not the not the plaid pants, which I never did own, I swear!).
LYRICS
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
Gonna keep on dancin’ to the rock ‘n’ roll
On Saturday night, Saturday night
Dancin’ to the rhythm in our heart and soul
On Saturday night, Saturday night
I-I-I-I-I just can’t wait
I-I-I-I gotta date
At the good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll road show
I’ve gotta go
Saturday night, Saturday night
Gonna rock it up, roll it up
Do it all, have a ball
Saturday night, Saturday night
S-S-S-Saturday night
S-S-S-Saturday night
S-S-S-Saturday night
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
Gonna dance with my baby ’til the night is through
On Saturday night, Saturday night
Tell her all the little things I’m gonna do
On Saturday night, Saturday night
I-I-I-I-I love her so
I-I-I-I’m gonna let her know
At the good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll road show
I’ve gotta go
Saturday night, Saturday night
Gonna rock it up, roll it up
Do it all, have a ball
Saturday night, Saturday night
S-S-S-Saturday night
S-S-S-Saturday night
S-S-S-Saturday night
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-S-S-Saturday night