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 Chords: Decoding the Blues Progressions
This song 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.
To get TAB for how to play this and all other sections as the only guitarist in a band, check the TAB lesson here: I Saw Her Standing There – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
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 | Course Preview
In the course, you’ll find plenty of TAB showing you how to play a part that works for your band. We explore how to build tension as well as play with discipline.
As a preview, here’s the intro with a minor pentatonic lick. Over time, you should develop this lick and make it your own. To keep the notation clear, I’ve written beat 2 of bar one as a quarter note with a dot above the stem—meaning “play short”. In contrast, bar 4 is written as an 8th note followed by a rest.
As you expand on these licks, make a habit of writing them down (hint: you should!). That way, you can decide exactly how you want to notate your ideas.
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 and lyrics above, study this one carefully!
I Saw Her Standing There Chords: Continue Learning
Want to master this song? Check out the full TAB lesson here: I Saw Her Standing There (The Beatles) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Alternatively, here are five similar tunes you might enjoy:
