I Saw Her Standing There

When you hear the initial count of "one, two, three," it's already anticipating the energy to come. It's the track that opens the UK's first album by The Beatles, Please Please Me, and also their first US release, Introducing... The Beatles. Recorded in February 1963 at EMI Studios in London, this rock and roll piece, lasting just under three minutes, became an important B-side. In December 1963, Capitol Records released it in the US alongside "I Want to Hold Your Hand." While the A-side dominated the Billboard charts for seven weeks, "I Saw Her Standing There" made its way onto the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 14 and staying there for 11 weeks.

The genesis of this song dates back to Paul McCartney, who conceived it while returning from a concert in Southport. He is said to have been inspired by a version of "Seventeen Come Sunday" he had heard in Liverpool in 1960. McCartney worked on the initial chords and arrangement on an acoustic guitar at a friend's house in Liverpool, and shortly after, while visiting London with his girlfriend Celia Mortimer, who was seventeen at the time, he began writing the first lines. The song was completed at McCartney's home, in collaboration with John Lennon, and they were already playing it live in December 1962 at the Star-Club in Hamburg. McCartney himself mentioned that the bass riff of "I Saw Her Standing There" was borrowed from Chuck Berry's "Talkin' About You," adapting it perfectly to his song. The lyrics, written in a school notebook, show the working dynamic of Lennon and McCartney, with John reacting with laughter to some of Paul's early ideas, such as the line "never been a beauty queen."