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Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)

original song composed by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn; first recorded by Frank Sinatra

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ7426655 ↗
Source-derived summary

"Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night in the Week)", also known as "Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)", is a popular song published in 1944 with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Sammy Cahn.

Background

Although it has been interpreted as referring to the separation of romantic partners during wartime, Cahn said that song actually refers to show business people who are not working on Saturday night.

1945 recordings

Charted versions in 1945 were by Frank Sinatra (recorded November 14, 1944, released by Columbia Records as catalog number 36762), (No. 2 in the charts), Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra (vocal by Nancy Norman) (No. 6), Frankie Carle and His Orchestra (vocal by Phyllis Lynne) (No. 8), Woody Herman and His Orchestra (vocal by Frances Wayne) (No. 15) and by The King Sisters (No. 15).

Other versions

Eydie Gormé – Eydie Gormé, 1957

Frank Sinatra - recorded November 29, 1957 for Capitol Records

Julie London - for her album For the Night People (1966)

Rosemary Clooney - for her album For the Duration (1991)

Barry Manilow - Manilow Sings Sinatra (1998)

Popular culture

Sinatra also sang the song in the short film The All-Star Bond Rally (1945).

Editorial summary

“Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)” enters the record as original song composed by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn; first recorded by Frank Sinatra. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Saturday, Night and Loneliest can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1944, 1945, 1957, 1966—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1944. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Saturday, Night and Loneliest.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Saturday, Night and Loneliest provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7426655. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 1945, 1957 and 1966.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week) primary sources, Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week) archive and Saturday research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.