#5: I Saw Her Standing There

Written by: Paul McCartney & John Lennon
Released: March 22nd, 1963
Appears on: Please Please Me
Lead vocal: Paul

Back in 1963, making an album was more of an obligation than an art. You had to make a platter of 14 (11-12 in the U.S.) songs because your record company told you to. So, you filled it up with the two sides of your hit-single and usually a bunch of covers.
This was the first wall the Beatles not only broke - they demolished.
Even though Please Please Me has six covers (three per side) the fact that eight songs are Lennon/McCartney originals is just amazing. It could have been that George Martin (who was coddling the boys like his own kids at this point) was confident in John & Paul's writing skills, especially since it had given them two hit singles or possibly that the two men fought for it. Whatever the case may have been the fact remains that Martin was so confident in these originals that the album starts with one.
"I Saw Her Standing There", with as cliche a topic as possible (we looked across the dance floor...and I saw her standing there...so we danced and fell in love on site), is the most intense, different and original opener in rock history. Martin said that his theory on albums was that you started and ended each side on a strong point. He couldn't have picked a stronger point to start the Beatles' debut record with. You have a fantastic, frantic guitar playing, an in-your-face bass line and those vocals. My god...listen to those screams leading into George's solo. If there really is one track that epitomizes everything that captured the attention of millions of teen-aged girls across the world, it is "I Saw Her Standing There".