I Saw Her Standing There
Producer
I Saw Her Standing There Lyrics
One, two, three, four!
[Verse 1: Paul McCartney & Paul McCartney & John Lennon]
Well, she was just seventeen
If 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 standin' there?
[Verse 2: Paul McCartney & Paul McCartney & John Lennon]
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
Woo, when I saw her standin' there
[Bridge: Paul McCartney & John Lennon]
Well, my heart went boom
When I crossed that room
And I held her hand in mine
[Verse 3: Paul McCartney & Paul McCartney & John Lennon]
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
Woo, since I saw her standin' there
[Bridge: Paul McCartney & John Lennon]
Well, my heart went boom
When I crossed that room
And I held her hand in mine
[Verse 3: Paul McCartney & Paul McCartney & John Lennon]
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 standin' there
[Outro: Paul McCartney & John Lennon]
Oh, since I saw her standin' there
Yeah, well, since I saw her standing there
About
Track one, side one of Please Please Me.
Now considered a rock'n'roll standard covered by everyone from Pharrell Williams to Led Zeppelin, it was originally titled Seventeen as McCartney derived the idea for it from traditional English folk song Seventeen Come Sunday. The final recording was the first take out of nine, with claps spliced in after.
Here’s some background on how the song came to fruition, first from John Lennon:
That’s Paul doing his usual job of producing what George Martin used to call a ‘potboiler.’ I helped with a couple of the lyrics."
And from Paul McCartney:
Sometimes we would just start a song from scratch, but one of us would nearly always have a germ of an idea, a title, or a rough little thing they were thinking about and we’d do it. ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ was my original. I’d started it and I had the first verse, which therefore gave me the tune, the tempo, and the key. It gave you the subject matter, alot of information, and then you had to fill in. So it was co-written… and we finished it that day."
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
The first chord is an E major, with some small vamping/improvisation on guitar for 4 bars. The guitar melody is actually going from high D to E an octave below, which on top of E major forms an E7 chord (E-G#-B-D) back to E major.
During the verse, the progression is:
E E A E (“Well she was… what I mean”)
E E B B (“And the way… compare”)
E E A a (“So how could I… another”)
E B E E (“When I saw her standing there”)
One of the more interesting aspects of the progression for the verse is the use of the minor 4th (iv) chord (A minor, noted as a lowercase a). The Beatles likely picked it up from doo wop music, and used the technique quite often.
The bridge uses A until the last word, which briefly goes to B before dropping back to A to resolve back to E major.
“I Saw Her Standing There” was my original. I’d started it and I had the first verse, which therefore gave me the tune, the tempo, and the key. It gave you the subject matter, a lot of information, and then you had to fill in. So it was co-written… and we finished it that day.
“(we) started to realize that we had to stop at these bad lines or we were only going to write bad songs. So we went through the alphabet: between, clean, lean, mean…”
As with most songs on Please Please Me, “I Saw Her Standing There” is written in the then-popular AABA form. The name AABA form describes the typical song sections: the A parts are verses, and the contrasting B sections are bridges (also known as middle eights). Each verse closes with a refrain, in lieu of a separate chorus section.
- 1.I Saw Her Standing There
- 2.Misery
- 4.Chains
- 5.Boys
- 6.Ask Me Why
- 10.Baby It’s You
- 12.A Taste of Honey
- 13.There’s a Place
- 14.Twist and Shout
- 16.It Won’t Be Long
- 18.All My Loving
- 19.Don’t Bother Me
- 20.Little Child
- 24.Hold Me Tight
- 33.If I Fell
- 35.And I Love Her
- 36.Tell Me Why
- 38.Any Time at All
- 39.I’ll Cry Instead
- 41.When I Get Home
- 43.I’ll Be Back
- 45.No Reply
- 46.I’m a Loser
- 47.Baby’s in Black
- 50.Mr. Moonlight
- 53.Words of Love
- 54.Honey Don’t
- 60.Help!
- 61.The Night Before
- 63.I Need You
- 64.Another Girl
- 66.Ticket to Ride
- 67.Act Naturally
- 68.It’s Only Love
- 72.Yesterday
- 73.Dizzy Miss Lizzy
- 75.Drive My Car
- 77.You Won’t See Me
- 78.Nowhere Man
- 80.The Word
- 81.Michelle
- 82.What Goes On
- 83.Girl
- 85.In My Life
- 86.Wait
- 90.Taxman
- 91.Eleanor Rigby
- 93.Love You To
- 99.For No One
- 100.Doctor Robert
- 101.I Want to Tell You
- 103.Tomorrow Never Knows
- 108.Getting Better
- 109.Fixing a Hole
- 110.She’s Leaving Home
- 113.When I’m Sixty-Four
- 114.Lovely Rita
- 117.A Day in the Life
- 119.Magical Mystery Tour
- 120.The Fool on the Hill
- 121.Flying
- 122.Blue Jay Way
- 124.I Am the Walrus
- 125.Hello, Goodbye
- 127.Penny Lane
- 131.Back in the U.S.S.R.
- 132.Dear Prudence
- 133.Glass Onion
- 134.Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
- 135.Wild Honey Pie
- 139.Martha My Dear
- 140.I’m So Tired
- 141.Blackbird
- 142.Piggies
- 143.Rocky Raccoon
- 144.Don’t Pass Me By
- 146.I Will
- 147.Julia
- 148.Birthday
- 149.Yer Blues
- 150.Mother Nature’s Son
- 152.Sexy Sadie
- 153.Helter Skelter
- 154.Long, Long, Long
- 155.Revolution 1
- 156.Honey Pie
- 157.Savoy Truffle
- 158.Cry Baby Cry
- 159.Revolution 9
- 160.Good Night
- 162.Yellow Submarine
- 163.Only a Northern Song
- 164.All Together Now
- 165.Hey Bulldog
- 166.It’s All Too Much
- 167.All You Need Is Love
- 168.Pepperland
- 169.Sea of Time
- 170.Sea of Holes
- 171.Sea of Monsters
- 172.March of the Meanies
- 176.Come Together
- 177.Something
- 179.Oh! Darling
- 180.Octopus’s Garden
- 182.Here Comes the Sun
- 183.Because
- 185.Sun King
- 186.Mean Mr. Mustard
- 187.Polythene Pam
- 189.Golden Slumbers
- 190.Carry That Weight
- 191.The End
- 192.Her Majesty
- 194.Two of Us
- 195.Dig a Pony
- 196.Across the Universe
- 197.I Me Mine
- 198.Dig It
- 199.Let It Be
- 200.Maggie Mae
- 201.I’ve Got a Feeling
- 202.One After 909
- 204.For You Blue
- 205.Get Back
- 207.Love Me Do
- 208.From Me to You
- 209.Thank You Girl
- 210.She Loves You
- 211.I’ll Get You
- 213.This Boy
- 215.Sie Liebt Dich
- 216.Long Tall Sally
- 217.I Call Your Name
- 218.Slow Down
- 219.Matchbox
- 220.I Feel Fine
- 221.She’s a Woman
- 222.Bad Boy
- 223.Yes It Is
- 224.I’m Down
- 225.Day Tripper
- 226.We Can Work It Out
- 227.Paperback Writer
- 228.Rain
- 229.Lady Madonna
- 230.The Inner Light
- 231.Hey Jude
- 232.Revolution
- 234.Don’t Let Me Down
- 236.Old Brown Shoe