Saturday Night -Bay City Rollers (1976) 1/5/23

Boy, did I fall down a rabbit hole with today's "Great Song of 1976:" "Saturday Night" by the Scottish boy band: The Bay City Rollers.

I figured I'd start with a quick history lesson and definition of "boy bands," and go from there.

Turns out, there's far more to it than you ight imagine.

I'll try to boil it down before we get to the song. Hopefully, I won't take you too far down the rabbit hole with me.

Boy bands are groups that feature young men who sing, dance, and sometimes play their own instruments. Sometimes they write their own music, but mostly, they do not. Sometimes they come together naturally--as within a family or group of friends, but sometimes (especially in recent years), they're put together by a producer or record company after holding auditions.

The first boy bands were barbershop quartets, which in the mid-20th century, morphed into harmony groups like The Four Freshmen and The Ink Spots.

Then along came the Beatles, and the words, "make girls scream, swoon and faint" were added to the definition.

They were followed by The Monkees, The Osmonds, The Jackson 5...and on and on and on from the '60s right up through today. NKOTB, Backstreet Boys, One Direction...etc...etc...if I named them all, you'd be reading all day!

In any event, you can see by all the fluid parameters that "boy band" applies in some way to all the groups I've mentioned, and it certainly applies to The Bay City Rollers.

In 1973, the group recorded their first try at "Saturday Night" with original lead singer Nobby Clark, and it went nowhere--in Scotland or anywhere else.

By 1975, Nobby had been replaced by Les McKeown and the Rollers gave the song another shot.

THIS time, the uptempo, hard rocking, 'clap-along beat with the shout-along spelling of "S-A-T-U-R-D-A=Y became a bona fide hit, topping the charts in the US and Canada, while climbing into the Top 10 in The Netherlands and West Germany.

(Trivia: In the US, the song became Billboard's first #1 of 1976!) )

Girls were screaming and fainting all over the globe--confirming The Bay City Rollers' place on the list of true boy bands, and making "Saturday Night" a "Great Song of the '70s!!"

Your rabbit hole experience has now concluded. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPEaS8PIqiA

Tomorrow: Backing up to highlight a song I should have highlighted on December 1st.