Looking at it again now, she’s an engaging personality, and although the song hasn’t improved there have been worse things since. I was spluttering, “who the flip writes this stuff?” Then it popped up on TOTP2 shortly afterwards, and in the voiceover Johnnie Walker said something about her refusing to do the line dance for the video, which apparently made her (IIRC) “one of the most independent people in rock”.
I certainly wasn’t indifferent to “Saturday Night” – utterly hated it, mainly for its repetitiveness with the one musical phrase and that house piano (not a favourite thing of mine in any context). Though if I’d been Eddy Grant (who I presume wrote it) I’d have been embarrassed to have that piece of guff exhumed after I’d spent the 80s establishing myself as a well-respected writer and musician – maybe that’s why he didn’t? « WET WET WET – “Love Is All Around” TAKE THAT – “Sure” » Comments « 1 2 3 Allīlimey, only just heard the Equals song and yes there’s no way that can have been a coincidence. If you do stick around, your reward is a lovely bit of house piano heading for the fade. Not so “Saturday Night”, which is charmingly unassuming, thanks mainly to Whigfield’s matter-of-fact performance. Most of them – from Conga to Macarena – carry a strong tang of coercion amidst the Piz Buin and Pina Colada, a vampiric need to co-opt their audience into the Fun. It is that rare holiday smash which doesn’t hustle its listener. If anything, I like this most for its influence – the enduring post-Whigfield school of plinky-plonk smilecore Eurodance which produced feelgood gems (Ang Lee’s “2 Times”, ATC’s “Around The World”) through the rest of the decade.īut actually “Saturday Night”‘s resistibility is its second fine quality. Not, though, irresistible – I’ve generally been pleased to hear “Saturday Night” and am content that it has made the world a happier place in some small fashion, but I wouldn’t own it, or put it on for fun, or even learn the dance. Obviously that’s entirely subjective and I expect to be swamped with annoyed Whigophobes in the comments, but for me this record has lucked onto something sweet and primal. How can you tell when something is iconically simple and not just, er, simple? I’d say when it never actually ends up irritating you. The main thing is that it’s one of those iconically simple pop hits, like a “Louie Louie” for the Thomas Cook set. “Saturday Night” has two big things going for it.