I Saw Her Standing There

The motifs of love, happiness and counting run through the lyric, and it is a vignette, one scene rather than a story. There is onomatopoeia in the writing ('My heart went boom'), and 1963 is the year the Beatles reached for it most. The title is worth a second look, since it points at a woman, and nothing earlier in the catalogue was like it. The writing draws on Chuck Berry, and chance or not, the line "I fell in love with" turns up in one other Beatles song, 'If I Fell'. In 1963, more of their songs name a woman in the title than in any other year: 4 of them, 'Devil in Her Heart', 'She Loves You', 'Thank You Girl' and this one.

'I Saw Her Standing There' is a rock and roll piece that moves at about 155 BPM, in E major. The tune carries musical quotation, a borrowed phrase (Chuck Berry - I'm Talking About You), and no Beatles record before this reaches for musical quotation. Then, the record has a walking bass part (Paul adapted from Chuck Berry's 'I'm Talking About You') and a lead vocal at full power. It has a guitar solo. By accident or design, its E7 → A7 → E7 → B7 → E chord progression is the move 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' makes as A9 → D → A → E7 → A.

The tape rolled at EMI Studio 2, cut live in nine takes during the marathon ten-hour Please Please Me album session, with Paul's count-in spliced from take 9 onto the master. Harrison played the Gretsch Duo Jet on it, his lead guitar, and the one on his first solo committed to a Beatles record. They worked with the Hofner 500/1, McCartney's own bass since 1962, most at home in their 1964 writing. It was made with close mic'ing, as on 42 of their records. This one came out of a ten-song day, the 5th to the 14th of their career.

McCartney wrote this one and sang it. It sticks to the roles they usually take, with Lennon on rhythm guitar, McCartney on bass, Harrison on lead guitar and Starr on drums, and 1963 is the year they reached for it most.

The song was issued in the US as the B-side of I Want to Hold Your Hand, and it charted separately at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. It leads off Please Please Me, and it is widely covered (Tiffany, Elton John, Tori Amos, Bruce Springsteen). It did not reach an American album until Introducing The Beatles, ten months later. This track was the 3rd of 32 released in 1963, and the 5th they ever made.