Songoftheday 12/5/15 - Well he was just seventeen you know what I mean, and the way he looked was way beyond compare..


"I Saw Him Standing There" - Tiffany
from the album Tiffany (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day comes from Tiffany, the teenage singer who used the power of the shopping mall to transform into a pop star in the most unlikely of ways, redoing a song that was a hit four years before her birth, "I Think We're Alone Now", going all the way to #1 in the fall of 1987. She then returned to the top of the pop chart with an "original" follow-up, "Could've Been". For the third single from her debut album Tiffany covered yet another 60s song about possible improperly youthful romance.

"I Saw Her Standing There" was the lead track on the Beatles' debut album in Britain, Please Please Me. In America, it was the B-side of their breakthrough record in the States, "I Want To Hold Your Hand". Written primarily by Paul McCartney (but credited as their custom to McCartney-Lennon), the ode to his then girlfriend, and harkened back to the rockabilly and skiff of the 50s. It reached a respectable #14 on the Hot 100, considering most of the "sales points" were for "I Want To Hold..."...


Tiffany's version made it apparent even before listening on the single cover that it's "him" she saw standing there. Otherwise it's pretty standard high school karoake that you might have recorded in Six Flags, with a weird Prince-like intro that plants it firmly in the late 80s...


Tacky or not, the kids sent Tiffany's take on "I Saw Him Standing There" to the top ten of the American pop chart in April of 1988. The single was also her third straight top-10 hit in the UK at #8, while it also made that level in Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


and here's the album version of the song...


Up tomorow: A colorful duo hasn't a clue.

Comments