I Saw Her Standing There Lyrics

[Intro: Paul McCartney]
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

[Guitar Solo]

[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

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About

Genius Annotation

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

What's the chord progression?
Genius Answer

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.

What has Paul McCartney said about the song?
Genius Answer

“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.

He added:

“(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…”

What is the song structure of "I Saw Her Standing There"?
Genius Answer

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.

Credits
Produced By
Bass Guitar
Background Vocals
Rhythm Guitar
Lead guitar
Recorded At
EMI Recording Studios, St. John's Wood, City of Westminster, Greater London, England
Release Date
March 22, 1963
I Saw Her Standing There Covers
I Saw Her Standing There by Santo & Johnny, I Saw Her Standing There by The Hollyridge Strings, I Saw Her Standing There by Jack Nitzsche, I Saw Her Standing There by Jerry Lee Lewis (Ft. Little Richard), I Saw Her Standing There by MonaLisa Twins, I Saw Her Standing There by John Corabi, I Saw Her Standing There (Tracks on the Tracks Sessions) by Himesh Patel, Quand Je L'Ai Vue Devant Moi (I Saw Her Standing There) by Johnny Hallyday (Ft. Joey and The Snowmen), I Saw Her Standing There by Part Time, I Saw Her Standing There by Cliff Richard, I Saw Her Standing There by The Crickets, I Saw Her Standing There by The Smithereens, I Saw Her Standing There by The Tubes, I Saw Her Standing There by Peter Lipa, 17 (I Saw Her Standing There) by MxPx, I Saw Her Standing There by Jerry Garcia, I Saw Her Standing There by Glee Cast, I Saw Her Standing There by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, I Saw Her Standing There by Little Richard, I Saw Her Standing There by Allister, I Saw Her Standing There by Bob Welch, I Saw Her Standing There by Daniel Johnston, I Saw Her Standing There by Ortopilot, I Saw Her Standing There by McFly, I Saw Her Standing There by Billy Joel (Ft. Paul McCartney), I Saw Her Standing There by Stereophonics, I Saw Her Standing There by David Cassidy, I saw her standing there by Bruce Springsteen, I Saw Her Standing There by Sting (Ft. Dave Matthews, Pharrell Williams & Vince Gill), I Saw Him Standing There by Tiffany & I Saw Her Standing There by Brad Mehldau
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