Beatles - I saw her standing there

Video of the Beatles singing the song I saw her standing there

"I Saw Her Standing There" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and is the opening track on the The Beatles' debut album Please Please Me, released in the United Kingdom by Parlophone on 22 March 1963.
In December 1963, Capitol Records released the song in the United States as the B-side on the label's first single by The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand". The single topped the U.S. charts for seven weeks starting 18 January 1964. "I Saw Her Standing There" entered the Billboard Hot 100 on 8 February 1964, remaining there for 11 weeks, peaking at number 14. In 2004, the song was ranked #139 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Composition

The song was a Lennon & McCartney collaboration based on McCartney's original idea.[1] Initially titled "Seventeen", the song was apparently conceived by McCartney whilst driving home from a Beatles concert in Southport, Merseyside[2] and later completed at his Forthlin Road home in September 1962 with Lennon, while the two were playing truant from school.[1] It was typical of how Lennon and McCartney would work in partnership, as McCartney later commented: "I had 'She was just seventeen,' and then 'Beauty queen'. When I showed it to John, he screamed with laughter, and said 'You're joking about that line, aren't you?'"[2] "It was one of the first times he ever went 'What? Must change that...'"[3] The lyrics were written on a Liverpool Institute exercise book. Remember, a book by McCartney's brother Mike McCartney, includes a photograph of Lennon and McCartney writing the song while strumming guitars and reading the exercise book. McCartney admits to lifting his bass line directly from a Chuck Berry song called "I'm Talking About You" (1961).[1]

Recording

The song was recorded at Abbey Road Studios on 11 February 1963, as part of the marathon recording session that produced 10 of the 14 songs on Please Please Me. The Beatles were not present for the mixing session on 25 February 1963,[4] which was not unusual at that time.
On the album, the song starts with a rousing "one, two, three, FOUR!" count-in by McCartney (pronounced "one, two, three, FAH!"). Usually, these count-ins are edited off the final audio mix. However, this was left on by record producer George Martin, as it was considered especially spirited,[3] and began the album in an upbeat vein. Music journalist, Richard Williams, suggested that this dramatic introduction to their debut album was just as stirring as Elvis Presley's "Well, it's one for the money, two for the show…" on his opening track, Blue Suede Shoes, for his debut album seven years earlier.[5] In addition, it made the point that The Beatles were a performing band as they also opened their live set in this way (however, by listening to outtakes of the song one can hear that the count-in is actually from take 9, while the master take is take 1 - the former was not preceded by a loud count-in).[6] George Martin initially contemplated recording the Please Please Me LP live at the Cavern in front of their own audience[6] and visited the Liverpool club to experience The Beatles phenomenon for himself.[7] But when time constraints intervened it was decided to book them into the Abbey Road studios instead.
Outtakes of this recording reveal that Paul McCartney on occasion, altered his bass line during the chorus as he regularly did on live versions.

Source: I saw her standing there (Wikipedia)