I Saw Her Standing There

The story behind

The Beatles wrote I Saw Her Standing There in 1963, shortly after beginning to record their first album. The song was released in the United Kingdom as part of Please Please Me, and in the United States as the B-side of a single. It was one of the first songs they recorded at the EMI studio in London. The lyrics talk about a young girl, seventeen years old, who looked pretty but wasn't a beauty queen. The idea came to Paul McCartney while he was in a car, after a concert. He wrote it in a exercise book, along with John Lennon, who laughed at a phrase and changed it. The song has a bass riff that copied Chuck Berry, something McCartney admitted later. They recorded it in February, and it was released in March. It was a success in the United States, where it reached number 14 on the charts.