Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire performs onstage during the opening night of Sing A Song All Night Long with Lionel Richie and Earth, Wind and Fire at Xcel Energy Center on 4 August 2023 in St Paul, Minnesota, United States. (Photo: Adam Bettcher / Getty Images for Live Nation) 
Sounds like a bit of a lame, inane question, doesn’t it? But is more interesting than it might seem.
Traditionally Saturday night is party night, the time in the middle of the weekend when you can go wild, party, flirt, get wasted (maybe), make love, meet people, be your total self.
There’s always the Sunday to contemplate your sins.
It’s what we call the Saturday Night Fever. You feel jubilant, full of energy, forever young.
But ironically, and precisely because that’s its reputation, not living your perfect life on Saturday night can result in minor or major despondency.
In that respect, it’s not unlike New Year’s Eve: great expectations, huge disappointments. The stakes are high. Saturday nights can be violent, as Elton John sang in Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting.
Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd described a cold-hearted murderer in Saturday Night Special. Saturday night is, in short, Janus-faced, and it turns out there are songs which express both sides of the coin; songs which build you up for romance and fun on the way, and songs which bemoan the failure of those hopes and wishes.
In this episode, journalists and music writers Fred de Vries and Tim Cohen gallop over songs you might listen to before the wild partying begins, songs you might listen to while the partying is happening, and songs that bemoan the dashed hopes that Saturday night promised.
As usual, we also choose the perfect song for a Saturday night … or do we?
Maybe there should be a song for the hopeful Saturday night and another for the hopeless Saturday night. Let us know your thoughts, preferences, songs we left out and whether, in fact, the best night of the week is not actually Saturday night, but Friday night.
This week’s selection consists of:
(Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night – Tom Waits
Saturday Night – Herman Brood and his Wild Romance
10.15 Saturday Night – The Cure
Forever Young – Sparks
Saturday Nite – Earth Wind and Fire
Another Saturday Night – Sam Cooke
DM
You can listen and subscribe to ThePerfectSongFor … podcast about the perfect song on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Full versions of the songs are in Spotify and Apple playlists; perfectsongfor@gmail.com
Contact the hosts of the podcast or email us your suggestions and alternatives at perfectsongfor@gmail.com
You can also follow the hosts on X: @perfectsongfor Insta: #perfectsongfor Tim Cohen is the business editor of Daily Maverick. Fred de Vries is an author, writer, journalist and South Africa correspondent for Elsevier Magazine and De Groene Amsterdammer. He writes regular music columns for Platenblad in the Netherlands and Vrye Weekblad in South Africa.