Wednesday, 5 March 2014

I Saw Her Standing There

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"I Saw Her Standing There" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and is the opening track on 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". While the A-side topped the US Billboard 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 #14. The song placed on the Cashbox charts for only one week at #100 on the same day of itsBillboard debut. In 2004, "I Saw Her Standing There" was ranked #139 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Composition[edit]

The song was a Lennon and McCartney collaboration based on McCartney's initial idea.[1] Originally titled "Seventeen", the song was apparently conceived by McCartney while driving home from a Beatles' concert in Southport, Lancashire[2] as a modern take on the traditional song As I Roved Out, a version of Seventeen Come Sunday that he had heard in Liverpool in 1960.[3] The song was later completed at his Forthlin Road home with Lennon.[1] McCartney later described in Beat Instrumental how he went about the song's composition: "Here’s one example of a bit I pinched from someone: I used the bass riff from 'Talkin’ About You' by Chuck Berry in 'I Saw Her Standing There'. I played exactly the same notes as he did and it fitted our number perfectly. Even now, when I tell people, I find few of them believe me; therefore, I maintain that a bass riff hasn’t got to be original".[4] 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. It was typical of how Lennon and McCartney would work in partnership, as McCartney later commented: "I had 'She was just seventeen,' and then 'never been a beauty queen'. When I showed it to John, he screamed with laughter, and said 'You're joking about that line, aren't you?'"[2] "We came up with, 'You know what I mean.' Which was good, because you don't know what I mean" (Barry Miles. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now),[5] "It was one of the first times he ever went 'What? Must change that...'"[6] Lennon said: "That's Paul doing his usual good job of producing what George Martin used to call a 'potboiler'. I helped with a couple of the lyrics." (David Sheff. John Lennon: All We Are Saying).[5] The songwriting credit on the Please Please Me liner notes is "McCartney–Lennon" which differs from the more familiar "Lennon–McCartney" that appears on subsequent releases.[7]

Recording[edit]

The first live recording (a slow version of the song) was made at the Cavern Club at the end of 1962. Lennon didn't play rhythm guitar; he played harmonica in the introduction and during the verses. Lennon and McCartney laughed when they sing "Well we danced all night/ And I held her tight/ And I held her hand in mine" second time.[5]
The song was recorded at EMI Studios on 11 February 1963 and engineered by Norman Smith, as part of the marathon recording session that produced 10 of the 14 songs on Please Please Me.[8] The Beatles were not present for the mixing session on 25 February 1963.[9] It was not common practice for bands to be present at such sessions at that time.
On the album, the song starts with a rousing "One, two, three, four!" count-in by McCartney. Usually, these count-ins are edited off the final audio mix. However, record producer George Martin wanted to create the effect that the album was a live performance: "I had been up to the Cavern and I’d seen what they could do, I knew their repertoire, and I said 'Lets record every song you’ve got, come down to the studios and we’ll just whistle through them in a day'".[10] Martin took the count-in from take 9, which was considered 'especially spirited'[6] and spliced it onto take 1.[11] 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.[12] In addition it also made the point that the Beatles were a performing band as, at that time, they opened their live set with this song.[13] On the first American release of the song, issued on Vee Jay Records, the count was edited out—but the "Four!" is still audible.
The full take 9 version of the song appears on the Free as a Bird CD single as a B side, released for the first time.
Take 2 of the song was released on "The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963" which was an album released exclusively to iTunes in 2013.

Release[edit]

Personnel[edit]

Personnel per Ian MacDonald[14][5]

Critical acclaim[edit]

Carr and Tyler, in The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, claimed it was only the third all-British rock classic up to that time, the previous two being Cliff Richard's "Move It" and Johnny Kidd's "Shakin' All Over".



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