Your writer can remember a drunken night in 1994 where he watched a vision of a violently beautiful, totally unobtainable girl from his course dancing to 'Saturday Night' on a club dancefloor and wishing he could be everything she was. 'Saturday Night' had its own dance you know. In fact, I heard about the dance long before I managed to hear the song - some UK tabloids, whipped up by the hype surrounding the two year old song that was taking the continent by storm, printed the moves in advance it being released to let the eager get some practice in (you can look them up on YouTube if you're interested).What was the fascination? I honestly don't know - 'Saturday Night' is more Eurodance but this time set to a series of beeps and bleeps that could have played over the end credits of a contemporary Nintendo game, their repetitive simplicity bolstered by Whigfield's own enthusiastic statement of Nordic intent to ensure that tonight's the night ("I'll make you mine you know I'll take you to the top, I'll drive you crazy"). There's no doubt it's catchy*, and yes it's fun too, but it's also dumb - 'Saturday Night' is a dumbed down take on 'Macarena' but minus the humour, and that's a comment that can double as both the best and the worst thing I can say about it. Ok, I can provide my own humour by fondly remembering my drunken stare all those years ago, but that's never going to be enough to compensate for the song's inherent facelessness that I find so withering; a blank slate with a sell by date dictated by the day of the week and a success built on hype, none of which marks it out as a good pop song.
* It caught the ear of both The Equals and Lindisfarne anyway who (unsuccessfully) claimed it plagiarised their own songs. But as anyone with ears could tell that the main melody is taken directly from 'Spanish Bombs' then I'm surprised The Clash didn't throw their hat into the ring too.
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