“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 bandg’s 1963 debut UK album Please Please Me and their debut US album Introducing… The Beatles.
About The Song
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 Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
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.
Video
Lyric
🎵 Let’s sing along with the lyrics! 🎤
Well, she was just seventeen
You know what I mean
And the way she looked
Was way beyond compare
So how could I dance with another
Ooh, when I saw her standing there?
Well, she looked at me
And I, I could see
That before too long
I’d fall in love with her
She wouldn’t dance with another
Ooh, when I saw her standing there
Well, my heart went “boom”
When I crossed that room
And I held her hand in mine
Oh we danced through the night
And we held each other tight
And before too long
I fell in love with her
Now I’ll never dance with another
Ooh, since I saw her standing there
Well, my heart went, “Boom”
When I crossed that room
And I held her hand in mine
Oh, we danced through the night
And we held each other tight
And before too long
I fell in love with her
Now I’ll never dance with another
Oh, since I saw her standing there
Oh, since I saw her standing there
Yeah, well since I saw her standing there