Chords + Lyrics | I Saw Her Standing There
Intro
||: E7 | E7 :||
1, 2, 3, 4!
Verse 1
| E7 | E7 | A | E7 |
Well, she was just seventeen, you know what I mean,
| E7 | E7 | B7 | B7 |
and the way she looked, was way beyond compare.
| E | E/G# | A | C |
So how could I dance with another, ooh?
| E7 | B7 | E7 | E7 |
When I saw her standing there?
Verse 2
Well, she looked at me, and I, I could see,
that before too long, I’d fall in love with her.
She wouldn’t dance with another, ooh,
when I saw her standing there.
Bridge 1
| A | A | A | A |
Well, my heart went “boom”, when I crossed that room,
| A | A | B7 | B7 | A7 | A7 |
and I held her hand in mine.
Verse 3
Oh, we danced through the night, and we held each other tight,
and before too long, I fell in love with her.
Now I’ll never dance with another, ooh,
since I saw her standing there, aaah-ha-ha-ha!
Solo 1
| E7 | E7 | E7 | E7 |
| E7 | E7 | B7 | B7 |
| E7 | E7 | A7 | A7 |
| E7 | B7 | E7 | E7 |
Bridge 2
Well, my heart went, “boom”, when I crossed that room,
and I held her hand in mine.
Verse 4
Oh, we danced through the night, and we held each other tight,
and before too long, I fell in love with her.
Now I’ll never dance with another, ooh,
since I saw her standing there.
Outro
| E7 | B7 | E7 | E7 |
Oh, since I saw her standing there.
| E7 | B7 | A7 | (E G G# E) E7 |
Yeah well since I saw her standing there.
I Saw Her Standing There Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning I Saw Her Standing There. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Should you want to play along with the original recording instead, you need to tune your guitar to 436Hz. In the backing tracks, I’ve done this job for you by tuning it to 440Hz.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
This tune combines two major blues progressions with one borrowed chord from a minor blues progression. Let’s break it down section by section and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
Verse
The verse is a 16-bar progression that begins like an 8-bar blues:
| E7 | E7 | A | E7 |
| E7 | E7 | B7 | B7 |
Then comes the more experimental signature section:
| E | E/G# | A | C |
| E7 | B7 | E7 | E7 |
Here, we build towards the IV chord with E – E/G# – A. After this A, we get a C chord—the “wacky” outside chord. Compare it to The Thrill Is Gone (where G serves a similar role) and you’ll notice it sits a semitone above the dominant: the V in major or IIIx in minor.
To round off the verse, we return to I – V – I.
Bridge
The bridge follows a blues structure that starts on IV (as Crossroads does):
| A | A | A | A |
| A | A | B7 | B7 | A7 | A7 |
This ten-bar section begins on IV, as many bridges do, then climbs to V before resolving back to IV, keeping the tension alive.
The IV – V movement ranks #2 on my top 10 chord progressions list—and for good reason. This bridge perfectly showcases its power.
There is TAB for how to play this and all other sections as the only guitarist in a band available further down this guitar lesson.
Solo
One final chord progression worth mentioning (though you’ll probably never play it) is the solo section:
| E7 | E7 | E7 | E7 |
| E7 | E7 | B7 | B7 |
| E7 | E7 | A7 | A7 |
| E7 | B7 | E7 | E7 |
It follows a 16-bar blues, but here’s the thing: in 30 years, after playing this song with at least 100 different bands, I’ve never once heard anyone stick to this progression during the solo. Every band defaults to the verse progression instead!
A super pro guitarist listens carefully in bar three—waiting to see if that C chord appears in bar 12. Or, even more shockingly, discovers that the band members have done the unthinkable—listened to the original recording!
Here’s a chord chart.
I Saw Her Standing There Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
Share my chord chart with your band members in advance to make sure the solo chords are played correctly!
If you download the iReal Pro version, you can change the key and even adjust my layout.
I Saw Her Standing There | TAB
Let’s go through the TAB that will work as a starting point for your own arrangement. It’s important to have a place to start, stick with it until you feel comfortable, and then start improvising around the parts to find your own voice.
You can change the chord shapes and licks, but begin by learning these simple parts.
Intro
This is a hint of what’s to come. On beat 2 of bar 1, the quarter note has a dot above it, which means “play short.” The following lick uses the E minor pentatonic in a Cm shape.
Once you feel comfortable, you can experiment with similar licks to make it your own.
Verses
I’ve got two ideas for the verse, here’s idea 1:
We start using the C-shaped chord and stay disciplined for the first 8 bars until the build.
Moving through E – E/G# – A – C, the intensity grows because of the chord changes and an added rhythm on the 4+. Towards the end, a variation of the intro lick appears, which you can eventually develop.
For verse idea 2 we play a more intense rhythm using open-position chords. The build is more legato, with larger chord shapes. The final lick is another variation on the intro lick.
A few notes on this example: the first A chord is now a dom7; the next one isn’t, even though it’s written that way. The C chord includes an open string at the end, but it’s not called Csus2—it’s just a transitional note to E7.
Once you can play this, start developing and improvising your part—this concept keeps the song fun for decades.
Bridge
The bridge section is repetitive for clarity. Only for the B7 do we modify the root on repeats, moving from the A-shaped to a G-shaped chord.
Solo
Next is the solo rhythm (for bands that have a sax or another solo instrument). Most bands play the verse progression during the solo; check with them before you start.
If they’ve learned the original recording, this is the progression to keep your part simple without distracting from the soloist.
Outro
Lastly, the outro—compulsory, legendary, and sometimes referenced in other songs.
When you can play all sections, use the backing tracks and chord chart above to practise putting it all together.
A Cover Band Essential
The Beatles wrote so many great songs that charted well, they could afford to release some as B-sides in one country and A-sides in another!
That was the case with I Saw Her Standing There—the B-side to I Want to Hold Your Hand in the U.S., but an A-side in Australia.
As the opening track on Please Please Me (U.K.) and Introducing… The Beatles (U.S.), it became one of the band’s many signature songs. Its legacy as a must-know tune for every cover band since 1963 is staggering.
I’d put I Saw Her Standing There up there with Sweet Home Alabama, Sex on Fire, Valerie, Respect, and Superstition—all songs you simply have to know if you want to play in bands for a living.
Using the chords, lyrics, charts, TAB, and backing tracks above, study this one carefully!
I Saw Her Standing There Chords: Continue Learning
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