I Saw Her Standing There

I Saw Her Standing There is the first song in The Beatles debut album, Please Please Me. This song entered the Billboard 100 on the 8th February 1964 and remained there for 11 weeks, peaking at #14. Roling Stone magazine ranked I Saw Her Standing There #139 on their list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

George, John and Paul at Paul's home

I Saw Her Standing There is basically a Paul McCartney song. The idea of the song came to him while driving home from a Beatles concert. Originally conceived as Seventeen, The Beatles later changed the title of the song to what it is right now.  This is to correspond with The Beatles established song-writing structure of ending every verse with the title of the song. This also allowed the title of the song to contain a personal pronoun "I" which The Beatles tried to put into their composition titles so that their listeners could relate to the song personally. Even though Paul was the one who thought of this song, Lennon did provide a helping hand in a couple of the lyrics. Both Lennon and McCartney  finished writing the song at McCartney's home.

The Beatles performing at the Cavern Club

The great thing about this song is that, unlike most others recorded in The Beatles early career, is an accurate reflection of the swinging dance sound that The Beatles are known for at the Cavern Club and other dance hall around their home town.


Another interesting fact about I Saw Her Standing There is that this was the first Beatles song released that features a high falsetto "ooh". This became a trademark of The Beatles in their earlier songs.


Hope you enjoy the video of the song below.