Artist:Mel McDaniel
Song:Louisiana Saturday Night
Album:Greatest Hits
The 1980 single Louisiana Saturday Night was not Mel McDaniel's biggest hit but it was his first top ten country hit. He scored a total of eight top ten hits in the early 80s. He was born Sept. 6, 1942 in Checotah, OK and grew up in Okmulgee. This was near Tulsa. McDaniel was inspired to play music after watching Elvis Presley on TV. After performing at a high school talent contest, McDaniel was in several bands. After graduating from high school, he started playing Tulsa clubs. After an unsuccessful trip to Nashville, McDaniel performed in clubs near the oil fields in Anchorage, AK. He returned to Nashville in 1976. And after working as a demo singer for Combine Music, that company's owner Bob Beckham helped McDaniel get a record deal with Capitol Records. McDaniel had modest success at first. But for his 1980 album I'm Countryfied, things clicked when they brought in producer Larry Rogers to work with McDaniel. Rogers had previously worked with Bill Black's Combo. This was McDaniel's third album. No doubt Capitol was getting impatient with McDaniel. Louisiana Saturday Night reached #7 on the Country Singles chart. It was written by veteran songwriter Bob McDill and was first recorded by Don Williams on his 1977 album Country Boy. Louisiana Saturday Night is the theme song for LSU football. McDaniel continued to have success with top ten hits like Right in the Palm of Your Hand (1981), Take Me to the Country (1982), Big Ole Brew (1982) and I Call it Love (1983). Then he finally scored his only #1 country hit with the 1984 single Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On. By this time McDaniel was working with veteran producer Jerry Kennedy. This was also written by Bob McDill. McDaniel was known for singing happy songs and he did this deliberately. He said folks were bummed out already and he didn't want to add to that. McDaniel recorded 11 albums for Capitol from 1976-89. You can get all his hits on this comp. It's short but it's the only one with the original recordings. McDaniel didn't record much after that. He did continue to tour until he was forced to retire after falling into an orchestra pit on Nov. 14, 1996 in Lafayette, LA. McDaniel never recovered from that. And after a 2009 heart attack, McDaniel died from lung cancer on Mar. 31, 2011 at age 68. Here's Mel McDaniel performing Louisiana Saturday Night and Big Ole Brew on the TV show Church Street Station.
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