Saturday Night Fish Fry

Fish Fry Sign in New Orleans

Saturday Night Fish Fry is a rhythm and blues song written by Louis Jordan and Lawrence Walsh. The best known version is that of Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five from 1949. The first recording of the song was by Eddie Williams and His Brown Buddies and was intended as a successor to their hit single Broken Hearted , but Louis Jordan's version was released earlier .

text

The song is written in first-person form and tells the story of two musicians taking part in a Saturday Fish Fry on Rampart Street in New Orleans . The party gets out of hand and the police are coming. In the end, the narrator ends up in jail for one night and threatens to beat anyone who mentions Fish Fry.

Louis Jordan adds a refrain to the original version after each verse, which he sings twice. ( "And it was rockin ', it was rocking, you never seen such scuffling and shuffling' til the break of dawn" ).

music

In contrast to the original version, the pace of Jordan's version is faster, and the shuffle version has become a boogie-woogie arrangement. Since the recording was too long for a conventional 78rpm single, it was split in two and released on a single.

Chart success and award

The song was at the top of the R&B charts for twelve weeks and also a hit in the national pop charts, which was a big exception for “ Race Music ” at that time. The song is on the list of 500 songs did shaped rock and roll of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .

Cover versions (selection)

• Canned heat
• The Coasters
• The Delta Rhythm Boys
• Floyd Dixon
• Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames
• Buddy guy
• BB King
• Lou Rawls
• Dr. Feel good
• Vince Weber

aftermath

• The radio station WHRV in Norfolk , Virginia named their jazz show on Saturday night after this song.
• English actor and writer Stephen Fry adapted the song title into a play on words and named his 1988 BBC comedy show Saturday Night Fry .

Web links

• Lyrics Saturday Night Fish Fry

Individual evidence

1. ↑ BMI entry for the song
2. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B / Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004. Record Research. P. 310.
3. ↑ 500 songs that shaped rock and roll
4. ↑ All Music Guide
5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.