"American Saturday Night" is a song written by

Ashley Gorley Ashley Gorley (born April 29, 1977) is an American songwriter, publisher, and producer from Danville, Kentucky, who is based in Nashville, Tennessee. Gorley has written 81 number 1 songs and has over 400 songs recorded by artists including Luke ...

and

Kelley Lovelace John Kelley Lovelace is an American songwriter known mainly for his work with country artist Brad Paisley. He has written several of Paisley's singles, including the number 1 hits " He Didn't Have to Be" (Paisley's first number 1), " The World" ...

, and co-written and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist

Brad Paisley Brad Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His first success came in 1997 as the writer of David Kersh's "Another You (David Kersh song), Another You". After this, he signed with ...

. The song originally charted as an album cut based on unsolicited airplay, charting at number 59 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

charts, and number 21 on the ''Billboard''

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

. It was then released as the third single from his sixth studio album, also titled '' American Saturday Night'', in November 2009. Following its official release as a single, it re-entered the country charts at number 41.

Content

In the song, the narrator lists off various foreign-themed items such as "Brazilian leather boots," a German car,

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

, Canadian bacon,

French kiss A French kiss, also known as cataglottism or a tongue kiss, is an amorous kiss in which the participants' tongues extend to touch each other's lips or tongue. A kiss with the tongue stimulates the partner's lips, tongue and mouth, which are sens ...

ing, and

toga The toga (, ), a distinctive garment of Ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tra ...

parties, using each as illustrative examples of the cultural diversity in the United States. In the last verse, he also addresses the country's acceptance of foreign immigrants. Paisley wrote the song with Kelley Lovelace and Ashley Gorley, both of whom have written several of his other single releases. When the three were writing "American Saturday Night," they decided to make "up-tempo songs that weren't necessarily funny." Gorley and Lovelace decided to include a lyric that contained "Live from... it's Saturday night" in reference to ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

s introductory "Live from New York, it's Saturday night." After Paisley wrote the line "It's a French kiss, Italian ice, Spanish moss in the moonlight / Just another American Saturday night" for the chorus, the three decided to use the song to illustrate "the things that are borrowed from other countries and traditions that make America great," according to Gorley.

Critical reception

CM Wilcox of The 9513, in his review of the album, said that " e heart of the album is in songs like '

Welcome to the Future A welcome is a kind of greeting designed to introduce a person to a new place or situation, and to make them feel at ease. The term can similarly be used to describe the feeling of being accepted on the part of the new person. Overview In s ...

' and the title track, which see Paisley easing into an armchair and commenting on the world around him from a smart historical perspective." Matt Bjorke of Roughstock said that it was "a nice, observational piece of songwriting Chris Neal of ''

Country Weekly ''Country Weekly'' (known as ''Nash Country Weekly'' from 2015–16) was an American magazine about country music. It was in circulation between April 1994 and May 2016. The publisher, Cumulus Media, now maintains the site Nash Country Daily. O ...

'' magazine gave the single four-and-a-half stars out of five, calling it an example of Paisley's "us nghis knack for clever lyrical details to address a hefty theme." Both Bjorke and Neal compared the song's theme to that of "Welcome to the Future."

Music video

The music video was released to cmt.com on December 16, 2009. It is largely animated, and includes

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

. Graphics make it look like a pop-up-book. Every person in this video is flat, like a board game piece. It was directed by Scott Scovill and Craig Countryman. It is also Brad's final video to feature a cameo from his good friend

Little Jimmy Dickens James Cecil Dickens (December 19, 1920 – January 2, 2015), better known by his stage name Little Jimmy Dickens, was an American country music singer and songwriter famous for his humorous novelty songs, his small size (4'10" 50 cm, and hi ...

, (who made cameos in several other Paisley videos prior) before his death in 2015.

Chart performance

Before its release to radio, "American Saturday Night" charted at number 59 on

based on unsolicited airplay. It later re-entered at number 41 on the chart week of November 21, 2009. It then peaked at number 2 in February 2010, behind

Josh Turner Joshua Otis Turner (born November 20, 1977) is an American Country music, country singer and songwriter. In 2003, he signed to Universal Music Group Nashville, MCA Nashville Records. That same year, his Long Black Train, debut album's title t ...

's "

Why Don't We Just Dance "Why Don't We Just Dance" is a song written by Jim Beavers, Jonathan Singleton, and Darrell Brown (musician), Darrell Brown, and recorded by American country music artist Josh Turner. It was released in August 2009 as the lead-off single from his a ...

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{authority control 2009 singles 2009 songs Brad Paisley songs Arista Nashville singles Songs written by Brad Paisley Songs written by Ashley Gorley Song recordings produced by Frank Rogers (record producer) Songs written by Kelley Lovelace