"I Saw Her Standing There" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. It is the opening track on the band's 1963 debut UK album Please Please Me and their debut US album Introducing... The Beatles.

In December 1963, Capitol Records released the song in the United States as the B-side on the label's first single by the Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand". While the A-side topped the US Billboard chart for seven weeks starting 1 February 1964, "I Saw Her Standing There" entered the Billboard Hot 100 on 8 February 1964, remaining there for 11 weeks, peaking at No. 14. The song placed on the Cashbox chart for only one week at No. 100 on the same week of its Billboard debut. In 2004, "I Saw Her Standing There" was ranked No. 139 on Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Composition

Originally titled "Seventeen", the song was conceived by McCartney when driving home from a Beatles' concert in Southport, Merseyside as a modern take on the traditional song "As I Roved Out", a version of "Seventeen Come Sunday" that he had heard in Liverpool in 1960. According to Beatles biographer Mark Lewisohn, McCartney first worked out the chords and arrangement on an acoustic guitar at the family home of his Liverpool friend and fellow musician Rory Storm on the evening of 22 October 1962. Two days later, McCartney was writing lines for the song during a visit to London with his then-girlfriend Celia Mortimer, who was seventeen at the time herself. The song was completed about a month later at McCartney's Forthlin Road home in collaboration with Lennon and performed as part of their set in December 1962 in the Star-Club in Hamburg. It is also possible John Lennon had more to contribute than has been reported since there is more than one photo of both John & Paul working on the song with guitars in hand taken by Michael McCartney. John very likely contributed some chord ideas as well since he was already actively writing songs on his own by late 1962.

McCartney later described in Beat Instrumental how he went about the song's composition: "Here's one example of a bit I pinched from someone: I used the bass riff from 'Talkin' About You' by Chuck Berry in 'I Saw Her Standing There'. I played exactly the same notes as he did and it fitted our number perfectly. Even now, when I tell people, I find few of them believe me; therefore, I maintain that a bass riff hasn't got to be original." Berry's "I'm Talking About You" was performed by The Beatles and the song appears on their albums Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962 and On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.

The lyrics were written in a Liverpool Institute exercise book. Remember: The Recollections and Photographs of the Beatles, a book by McCartney's brother Mike McCartney, includes a photograph taken in the front room of his home of Lennon and McCartney writing the song while strumming their acoustic guitars and reading the exercise book. It typified how Lennon and McCartney would later work in partnership, as McCartney subsequently reflected: "I had 'She was just seventeen,' and then 'never been a beauty queen'. When I showed it to John, he screamed with laughter, and said 'You're joking about that line, aren't you?'" According to McCartney, "We came up with, 'You know what I mean.' Which was good, because you don't know what I mean." In a 1988 interview, McCartney stated that "It was one of the first times he ever went 'What? Must change that ...'" Lennon said: "That's Paul doing his usual good job of producing what George Martin used to call a 'potboiler'. I helped with a couple of the lyrics." The songwriting credit on the Please Please Me liner notes is "McCartney–Lennon" which differs from the more familiar "Lennon–McCartney" that appears on subsequent releases.

Recording

The first live recording (a slow version of the song) was made at the Cavern Club at the end of 1962. Lennon did not play rhythm guitar; he played harmonica in the introduction and during the verses. Lennon and McCartney laughed when they sang "Well we danced all night/And I held her tight/And I held her hand in mine" the second time.

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|-

!align="left"|Chart (1964)

!align="left"|Peak<br>position

|-

|Australia (Kent Music Report)<br/>(B-side: Love Me Do)

| style="text-align:center;"|1

|-

|New Zealand (Lever Hit Parade)

| style="text-align:center;"|1

|-

|Canada (CHUM Chart)

| style="text-align:center;"|1

|-

|Denmark (Salgshitlisterne Top 20)

| style="text-align:center;" |1

|-

|Swedish Kvällstoppen Chart

|style="text-align:center;"|13

|-

|align="left"|US Billboard Hot 100

| style="text-align:center;"|14

|-

|align="left"|US Cash Box Top 100

| style="text-align:center;"|100

|}

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable"

|-

!align="left"|Chart (1964)

! style="text-align:center;"|Rank

|-

|US Billboard Hot 100

| style="text-align:center;"|95

|-

|}

Certifications

Releases

  • British LP: Please Please Me
  • British EP: The Beatles (No. 1)
  • American LP: Introducing... The Beatles
  • American single: "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
  • American LP: Meet the Beatles!
  • Canadian LP: The Beatles' Long Tall Sally

Personnel

  • Paul McCartney – lead vocals, bass guitar, hand claps
  • John Lennon – harmony vocals, rhythm guitar, hand claps
  • George Harrison – lead guitar, hand claps
  • Ringo Starr – drums, hand claps

:Personnel per Ian MacDonald|new wave|funk|disco|lounge rock

Critical reception

Tiffany's version of the song was nearly universally panned by critics. Richard Lowe of Smash Hits considered this cover "an affront to taste and decency and will visibly cringe every time they hear that nasty little 'synth' 'riff'." In a review for the Delaware County Daily Times, Len LaBarth criticized the cover as being "quite horrid." Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone reviewed that the song is a "conceptual disaster". In his review, Agnes Torres of The Orlando Sentinel ranked the song as the worst of the songs in her self-titled album. One of the few positive reviews came from Cashbox, writing that she sang the song with "a real growling energy." Music critic Robert Christgau highlighted the track as one of the "two schlock classics", stating that it "drags a rock and roll classic through the mud by its cheesy Prince-schlock synth riff."

Music video

A live music video was released for the track. It was directed by Jay Dubin and was filmed at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. It was premiered on 23 March 1988, on MTV, Night Tracks, and Hit Video USA.

Chart performance

Tiffany version

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

! scope="col"| Chart (1988)

! scope="col"| Peak<br>position

|-

|-

!scope="row"|Canada Retail Singles (The Record)

|4

|-

|-

!scope="row"|Denmark (Hitlisten)

| 49

|-

!scope="row"| Ecuador (UPI)

| 3

|-

!scope="row"| Europe (Eurochart Hot 100 Singles)

|28

|-

|-

!scope="row"|Japan (Oricon)

| 15

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

!scope="row"|US Hot Crossover 30 (Billboard)

|27

|-

!scope="row"|US Top 100 Pop Singles (Cashbox)

|13

|-

!scope="row"| US Top 40 (Gavin Report)

|9

|-

!scope="row"| US Contemporary Hit Radio (Radio & Records)

| 11

|-

|}

Release history

{| class="wikitable"

|+Release dates and format(s) for "I Saw Him Standing There"

!Region

!Date

!Format(s)

!Label(s)

!

|-

|United States

|12 February 1988

|CHR/Pop radio

| rowspan="5" |MCA

|

|-

| rowspan="2" |Japan

|25 March 1988

|Mini CD single

|

|-

|11 May 1988

|Mini-album single

|

|-

|United Kingdom

|23 May 1988

|

|

|-

|Australia

|25 May 1988

|

|