McCartney's rocker was known as Seventeen when the Beatles recorded it on February 11th, 1963. They knew the song well, as they had already been playing it in their stage act for a few months, and they nailed it on take one. But Martin thought they could do better, so he pushed them to repeat it several more times. A few of these takes broke down as the boys, who were still relatively new to working in the studio, lost concentration, prompting Paul's strong count-in to rally the group before take nine. When reviewing the takes, Martin opted for take one, but he made sure to edit the take nine intro onto the beginning, thereby creating the illusion of the live album he had wanted to make all along. Though most of the album stayed true to the live-in-the-studio aesthetic, this song did feature one overdub. All four Beatles gathered at the microphones to add handclaps to the number throughout.
In addition to opening their first British album, the song also opened the Vee-Jay album Introducing the Beatles in the US, but someone at Vee-Jay thought the count-in was left in accidentally, so only the "Faw!" is heard on the American album. Once Capitol Records was persuaded to finally release a single by the group, the label chose to replace I Want to Hold Your Hand's UK B-side This Boy with this early rocker. Capitol also put the song (with the count-in intact) on the album Meet the Beatles!
For proof that the band was playing the song before they officially recorded it, one need look no further than the many releases of the Star Club tapes from Hamburg. The performance is from December 31st, 1962 and, unlike much of that evening's lackluster work, it is spirited both vocally and instrumentally.
Several versions are available from late 1963, a time when manager Brian Epstein kept the boys on a grueling schedule just as they were on the cusp of unimaginable fame. Live at the BBC features a live performance from the program Easy Beat while On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2 presents a recording made a month earlier for the program Saturday Club. Perhaps the best live version is from a Swedish broadcast recorded in late October which can be found on Anthology 1.
The EP Free as a Bird, released in conjunction with the Anthology series, presents the complete take nine starting with the count-in by Paul that Martin used for the master. What this take and all of the other versions reveal is that George's guitar solo was never set. He improvised each time, yielding many shaky results. The group did not maintain this practice for very long once they became recording artists, preferring carefully crafted solos which were faithfully recreated in concert.
This was the last song John Lennon ever performed on stage, joining Elton John at Madison Square Garden in 1974 and introducing it as being by "an old estranged fiance of mine called Paul." It was originally released as the B-side of the single Philadelphia Freedom.
A personal connection to this song occurred for me during the summer of 1997 when a young, fresh out of college actor named David Harbour told me that he didn't care for the Beatles because you couldn't dance to their music. Shortly thereafter, we were at a nearby bar and, when the local band began playing I Saw Her Standing There, nearly everyone in the room jumped to their feet and began dancing. I couldn't resist the chance to lean over to David and say, "No, you can't dance to the Beatles!"
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