"I Saw Her Standing There"
Beatlemania
By late 1963, Brian Epstein was determined to secure a U.S. breakthrough. His earlier attempts had met with repeated rejection, but in November, Capitol Records—EMI’s American branch—finally agreed to release “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in January 1964. Fate intervened when American radio stations began playing the song ahead of schedule. Capitol responded by moving the release date to December 26, 1963, and launched an aggressive promotional push, sending one million pre-recorded “interview” discs to radio stations nationwide to create the illusion that the Beatles had spoken with every disc jockey in America. On the East Coast, stations stoked anticipation with breathless countdowns: “It’s nine o’clock, kids—seventeen hours and twelve minutes until the Beatles touch American soil.”
The Beatles' arrival in the United States in early 1964 came at a moment of fundamental cultural change, not just for music but for American society as a whole. Just months earlier, on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youthful and charismatic leader of what he had called the "New Frontier." He represented the hopes of a new generation: optimism, idealism, youth and a forward-looking vision for America’s future. His sudden and violent death delivered a devastating emotional blow to the nation. Many young people had looked to him as a symbol of progress and renewal. In an era shaped by mass media, the shock was felt instantly across the country. Some cultural commentators have since argued that the Beatles’ joyous energy, humor, and fresh sound filled a void in the national mood, offering a kind of collective catharsis. Others point to more pragmatic factors: an irresistible single, a savvy promotional campaign, and the growing appetite for rock and roll music. Whether driven by emotional timing, smart promotion, or both, the Beatles had captured the attention of America. And America was ready.
Whatever the reasons, demand in the U.S. exploded. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” shot up the charts, and the album Meet the Beatles! quickly followed, cementing the group’s presence. When the Beatles arrived at New York’s Kennedy International Airport on February 7, 1964, they were met by 25,000 screaming fans and hundreds of journalists. Their first press conference on American soil showcased the charm irreverent humor that would become part of their brand. Asked if they would get haircuts while in the U.S., George Harrison deadpanned, “I had one yesterday.”
Two days later, on February 9, the Beatles made their live American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Roughly 73 million viewers—or about 60 percent of the U.S. television audience—watched them perform “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You,” and “I Saw Her Standing There.” Aside from the Broadway ballad “Till There Was You,” every song was a Lennon-McCartney original. The performance, followed by two more Sullivan appearances on February 16 and 23, became a milestone in both pop music and television history, signaling that rock and roll had entered a new, international phase—with the Beatles as its leading ambassadors.
The scale of Beatlemania, or the intense fan frenzy and cultural obsession that surrounded the Beatles, was unmatched. In Kansas City, for example, the bedsheets the band had slept on were cut into 160,000 one-inch squares and sold for a dollar each. Fans fainted, climbed ventilation shafts, and swarmed concert venues, often forcing the Beatles to leave in armored vehicles for their own safety. According to The Wall Street Journal, Beatles-themed merchandise generated $50 million in sales in 1964 alone—an amount significant enough to shift the balance of trade between the United States and the United Kingdom.
“I Saw Her Standing There”
Written primarily by Paul McCartney, “I Saw Her Standing There” is the first original composition we will examine. McCartney draws heavily on the musical vocabulary the Beatles developed through their early cover repertoire such as “Boys”. Since 1962, “I Saw Her Standing There” had been a fixture in their live set, often performed between numbers by Buddy Holly and Little Richard, and was originally known under the working title “Seventeen.” McCartney began sketching the song in the front parlor of his family home on Forthlin Road, inspired by his then-girlfriend, Iris Caldwell—the sister of Rory Storm, whose band once featured Ringo Starr. When Lennon joined the writing process, he helped reshape McCartney’s opening couplet, introducing a lyrical turn that echoed Chuck Berry’s “Little Queenie,” particularly the line “too cute to be a minute over seventeen,” which finds an almost direct parallel in the Beatles’ lyric
Musically, the song borrows several features from their early covers and are indicative of their early style, including the 7th chord harmonies, the 12-bar blues structure, and the driving Merseybeat feel—elements that defined their live performances in Liverpool and Hamburg. Its style is closely aligned with the American rock and roll they idolized and often covered, particularly the work of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly. That closeness reveals much about the band at this stage. As songwriters, they were still steeped in the forms and idioms of their influences, using their mastery of those conventions to craft an original work that could stand comfortably alongside the American hits in their setlist. In doing so, they positioned themselves not only as skilled interpreters of rock and roll but as emerging contributors to its evolving tradition.
Recorded on February 11, 1963, at Abbey Road’s Studio Two, the track bursts into life with McCartney’s exuberant count-off of “one, two, three, four!” which captures the immediacy of their stage act. Released in the United States in January 1964 as the B-side to “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” it nonetheless climbed to number 14 on the Billboard chart and was one of the five songs they performed during their historic Ed Sullivan Show debut the following month. Its brash, kinetic energy evokes the sweaty, crowded ballrooms of their early career while announcing the arrival of a fresh and unmistakably original voice in rock and roll.
This analysis begins at the very start of the recording (0:00) and covers the intro, the A section, and the B section. Rather than simply labeling the song as having verse and chorus sections, it is more accurate to think of it as distinct sections with different musical functions.
The A section initially seems to follow a traditional 12-bar blues form however it deviates from the standard phrasing and ends after only 8 measures. The B section introduces contrast, both in the chord progression and the groove. The chord progression in the B section is as follows, with one chord per measure creating a distinct eight bar phrase:
E7 (I7) - E7/G# (I7/III) - A (IV) - C (♭VI)
E7 (7) - B7 (V7) - E7 (I7) - E7 (I7)
This progression adds color and tension, especially with the chromatic passing chord E7/G# and the unexpected C major chord (♭VI), enriching the harmonic palette beyond the straightforward blues framework of the A section.