Top Ten Saturday Songs: Louisiana Saturday Night (#10)

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Hey, it's Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right! That means it's time to break out another series, this one devoted to songs with "Saturday" in the title. These ten songs are going to take you all over the place musically, but we're going to start with country. #10: Louisiana Saturday Night - Mel McDaniel There are two different songs titled "Louisiana Saturday Night." One was a Cajun-style song by Jimmy C. Newman. This is the other, and far more popular, one. Released as a single in early 1981, it reached the Billboard top ten and set Mel McDaniel's career on its way. It remains one of McDaniel's best-known and most popular hits. (And this song is a really good explanation as to why I despise the band Alabama. If you ever noticed, nearly all of Alabama's mid-tempo songs sound exactly like this.) McDaniel's final years were plagued with injuries (he fell into an orchestra pit during a concert) and illnesses (suffering a near-fatal heart attack that kept him in a medically-induced coma for weeks). He was diagnosed with lung cancer in February 2011 and died a month later at the age of 68. I didn't like everything Mel McDaniel did, but this song is one of those great feel-good songs of country music. Louisiana Saturday Night Written by Bob McDill Recorded by Mel McDaniel From I'm Countrified, 1980 Get down the fiddle and you get down the bow: