"La Nuit De Samedi (Saturday Night Waltz)" - Joseph Falcon

Early on, Dennis McGee and Sady Courville recorded some of the first Creole tunes by mixing together their French vocals with old fiddle tunes.  Their song "Chere Bebe Creole" would be copied and transformed into several similar tunes over time, including one by Joe Falcon entitled "La Nuit De Samedi (Saturday Night Waltz)".   It was an unusual Decca session in 1937 in Dallas, TX where Joe and Cleoma re-recorded some of their earlier popular tunes such as "Lafayette" and "Waltz That Carried Me To My Grave".  Clearly their original songs were waning in popularity and they felt the pressure to release more music, including popular radio tunes such as "Bonnie Blue Eyes", "It's A Sin To Tell A Lie" and "Lulu's Back In Town". 

Tous ces grands samedis au soir, 

Je les ai passés moi tout seul,

Jolie fille, chère, tu connais, mon nègre, 

Ça c'est dur pour moi et pour toi. 

Tu veux plus d'ton pauvre vieux nègre, 

Mais jolie fille, chère, 

Ça c'est dur, beb, tu connais, tite fille, 

J'mérite pas donc tout ça.

Faudra bien (que) moi j'm'en vas, 

À la maison, moi tout seul,

Ça c'est dur, chère, tu connais, tite fille,

J'mérite pas ça, quoi t'as fait.

T'aurais voulu m'écouter,

Tu serais pas ayou toi t'es,

Toi tu serais, belle, avec moi même, tite coeur,

À la maison, joli coeur.

Cleoma Breaux and Joe Falcon

By 1947, Happy Fats would name it  "Dans Le Platin".   In the 1950s, Chester "Pee Wee" Broussard used the melody in his "La Valse De Bayou Blanc". Much later, it would become the well-known song "La Valse De Samedi Soir", made popular by Dallas Roy, Blackie Forestier and later the Balfa Brothers in 1974.  

All of these big Saturday evenings,

I've passed by, all alone,

Pretty girl, my dear, you know, my friend,

That this is hard for me and for you.

What more do you want from your poor old man,

Well, pretty girl, my dear,

That this is hard, babe, you know this, little girl,

I don't deserve all of that.

It's best that I should go,

To my house, all alone,

That is hard, dear, you know this, little girl,

I don't deserve that, what you have done.

You should listen to me,

You won't where you are,

You will be beautiful with me, my little sweetheart,

To the house, my beautiful sweetheart.

Daily Advertiser
Apr 12, 1937

Over time, the tune made it's way into other songs such as "La Valse de Bayou Blanc" by Pee Wee Broussard around 1953, "Frugé Waltz" (#2) by Wade Frugé in 1998.   Other songs such as "'Tit Canard Mulet" by Wallace "Cheese" Reed had some similarities.

1. Lyrics by Stephanie D