John Lennon Called The Beatles’ ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ ‘a Potboiler’
John Lennon said The Beatles‘ “I Saw Her Standing There” was a potboiler. In addition, he discussed what he thought about Paul McCartney’s work on the song. In a 2021 book, Paul talked about the effect “I Saw Her Standing There” had on audiences.
What John Lennon thought of Paul McCartney’s contributions to The Beatles’ ‘I Saw Her Standing There’
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. In it, John was asked about many Beatles songs. One of them was “I Saw Her Standing There.”
“That’s Paul doing his usual good job of producing what George Martin used to call a ‘potboiler,'” he replied. “I helped with a couple of the lyrics.” For context, a potboiler is a work of dubious merit that is made to generate money.
In 2021, Paul McCartney said 2 of The Beatles’ songs are great at making people dance
In his 2021 book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul discussed his relationship to dancing. “There’s no denying it; I really enjoy dancing. If I’m at a party and some spirited music comes on, I like to dance,” he wrote. “It’s something my wife Nancy and I are particularly keen on. After a show, when the band and crew get together for a drink, we’re always the first ones on the dance floor.”
“Certain songs will just get you dancing, and you also have tracks that become danceable without your ever meaning that to happen,” he said. “Certain songs that John and I wrote, like ‘I Saw Her Standing There,’ just have everyone up on their feet. ‘Twist and Shout‘ really gets them going too. Dancing was always a big social thing. It was the way to meet your partner, long before people started meeting online.”
How ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
“I Saw Her Standing There” became a hit in the United States. The tune reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for 11 weeks. The tune was the opening track of The Beatles’ album Please Please Me, which peaked at No. 155 on the Billboard 200 for one week.
According to The Official Charts Company, “I Saw Her Standing There” was a more modest hit in the United Kingdom. It peaked at No. 90 in the U.K for a week. Meanwhile, Please Please Me reached No. 1 for 30 weeks in the U.K. and remained on the chart for 70 weeks in the U.K.
John felt “I Saw Her Standing There” was a potboiler — albeit a well-executed one.
