A musical by Stephen Sondheim.

Saturday Night was set to premiere in the 1954-55 Broadway season. Announcements of the production appeared in the New York Times, and auditions were held in mid-1955, following some revisions to the music brought about by backers’ auditions. In the summer of 1955, it appeared that Saturday Night would be Sondheim’s musical debut on Broadway that fall. However, in August of 1955, lead producer Lemuel Ayers died, leaving the production with little morale and even less cash. The production was scrapped, and the musical material shelved. Although a handful of songs from the musical have appeared in revues and on Sondheim compilation albums, the score as a whole went unperformed until 1997. Sondheim, after seeing a student concert version of the musical at a Stephen Sondheim Study Day at the University of Birmingham, gave permission for the Bridewell Theatre in London to produce the first-ever staging if Saturday Night. Following that production, the show saw its U.S. Premiere with Chicago’s Pegasus Players, and its New York premiere at the off-Broadway Second Stage Theatre in February 2000.

Also, a number one single performed by the lovely Whigfield. After being a big hit in Ibiza, it was showcased on Channel 4's 'The Big Breakfast' before going on to dominate the UK singles charts in the middle of 1994.

Musically, it's interesting in several ways - most obviously, the fact that it doesn't follow the conventional verse / chorus pop structure. Instead, it has an extended verse and a bridge, repeated three times. There are four chords which cycle in strict time - the superb C major, the melancholic A minor, the bombastic F major and the always-sufficient G major.

Whigfield's next song, 'Another Day', was essentially identical. The lyrics of 'Saturday Night' appear to be a tale of demonic possession in a burning building, a subtext sadly not explored by the video, which consisted of Whigfield applying make-up.

There was also a Spanish version entitled 'Sábado À Noite', I'm not going to add the lyrics. No, okay.

No sooner had the nation recovered than Scatman John's 'Scatman' hit the charts like a big fat whale.

"Saturday Night"
Written and produced by Larry Pignagnoli and David River
Performed by Whigfield

Saturday night, I feel the air is getting hot -
Like you, baby!
I'll make you mine you know - I'll take you to the top
I'll drive you crazy!

Saturday night, dance, I like the way you move -
pretty baby,
it's party time and not one minute we can lose -
be my baby!

Da ba da dan dee dee dee da nee na na na [This is the official transliteration]
Be my baby!
Da ba da dan dee dee dee da nee na na na
Pretty baby!

[Repeat the whole damn thing three times]

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