"I Saw Her Standing There"
The bass line in “I Saw Her Standing There” departs slightly from the straight walking feel heard in “Boys,” though it still follows a steady pattern eighth note pattern within a 12-bar blues framework. McCartney’s line often follows a 1–1–3–1–5–1–m7–1 sequence. McCartney borrowed the walking bass idea directly from Chuck Berry’s “I’m Talking About You,” later admitting, “We were the biggest nickers in town… plagiarists extraordinaires” (MacDonald 1994, 144).
When the song shifts to the quarter-note groove at the B section, the bass abandons the walking bassline phrasing and locks into a simple, unbroken quarter-note pulse, reinforcing the new feel. This shift aligns tightly with Ringo’s drums, who also changes his pattern to emphasize quarter notes on the snare. The bass’s move away from the walking line complements the drums’ quarter-note emphasis, tightening the rhythmic foundation and driving the momentum giving a contrasting rhythm for this different section of the song.