Official Chart Flashback 1994: Whigfield's Saturday Night makes a record-setting (and ending) Number 1 debut

Whigfield's Saturday Night ended Wet Wet Wet's 15 week long-reign at Number 1...and set an Official Charts first, too.

Dee dee na na na?

If you have grown up anywhere in the UK and Ireland since 1994, then you will already be very familiar with Whigfield's Saturday Night, the Italo-pop dance anthem that must have soundtracked every single school dance, birthday party and wedding reception since...well...this week in 1994.

Believe it or not, 29 years ago, Saturday Night debuted at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart, both setting one Official Chart record and ending another.

Then 24 year old, Whigfield (real name Sannie Carlson, who hails from Denmark) became the first act ever to enter at Number 1 in the UK with their debut single. That's right...ever.

At the same time, Whigfield also dethroned Scottish pop outfit Wet Wet Wet, whose 15 week (!) reign at the top of the Singles Chart with Love Is All Around still holds its place as the third longest-running UK chart-topper of all time.

MORE: See where all of Whigfield's singles have charted in the UK

According to Whigfield herself (read more in our exclusive Whigfield interview from 2014, when Saturday Night celebrated its 20th anniversary), the song in its original form dates back to at least 1991, where the demo was shopped to various labels who turned it down apart from one very small indie outfit in Spain. It then started getting played on local Top 40 stations every Saturday night (we mean, of course) and spiralled from there.

A few fun facts we picked up from Whigfield; first, the highly iconic "dee dee na na na?" introduction was actually a mistake when originally recording the song that the producer liked and kept in and she has...wait for it...never even done the Saturday Night dance!! Sacrilege, surely?

This week 29 years ago, Saturday Night debuted at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart with 159,000 first week sales. According to Official Charts Company data, the track has a combined chart units tally of 1.4 million, including over 800,000 physical sales, 170,000 downloads and to date over 53 million streams.

With combined physical sales of over 1 million, Saturday Night is also a cherished member of the rarified Million Sellers Club in the UK, and is as such one of the best-selling singles in the history of the Official Chart.

Not bad for a school disco staple, right?

Elsewhere on the Official Singles Chart 19 years ago: Luther Vandross & Mariah Carey entered at Number 3 with Endless Love and R.E.M's What The Frequency, Kenneth? was the final new entry inside the Top 10.

Revisit the Official Singles Chart Top 40 from this week in 1994 here.