"Saturday Night Special" is a song written by Larry Bastian and Dewayne Blackwell, and recorded by American country music artist Conway Twitty. It was released in June 1988 as the second single from the album Still in Your Dreams. The song reached #9 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.[1]
| "Saturday Night Special" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Conway Twitty | ||||
| from the album Still in Your Dreams | ||||
| B-side | "If You Were Mine to Lose" | |||
| Released | June 1988 | |||
| Recorded | 1987 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 3:21 | |||
| Label | MCA | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Larry Bastian, Dewayne Blackwell | |||
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Bowen, Conway Twitty, Dee Henry | |||
| Conway Twitty singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
The song's title refers to the pejorative slang for an inexpensive handgun, which a young man purchases at a pawn shop.
Content
editThe song's story tells of the man planning to kill himself after a failed relationship. The story opens with him bartering with a pawn dealer for the "Saturday night special" and one bullet. Before he is able to leave, he overhears the pawn dealer cruelly and callously deal with a young, distraught woman trying to hock her wedding ring ("Seven dollars, nothin' more!" he tells her, as the woman breaks down in tears). The previous customer turns around and stares angrily at the pawn dealer, placing his hand in his jacket pocket where he had placed the gun. The pawn dealer, knowing that a mistake in dealing at this point could cost him his life, relents and gives the woman a much larger sum – $2,000 – for the ring. In the end, the young man and newly divorced woman decide to run away to Texas to start a new life.
Chart performance
edit| Chart (1988) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[2] | 9 |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks[3] | 19 |
References
edit- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 362.
- ^ "Conway Twitty Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
- ^ "RPM 100 Country Singles" (PDF). RPM. November 5, 1988.
 | This 1988 country song-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |