B-side "Even If I Could" Format 7-inch Genre Sunshine Pop | Released June 1966 Recorded April 1966 | |
Length 3:10 (album)
2:50 (single) | ||
"I Saw Her Again" is a pop song recorded by the U.S. vocal group the Mamas & the Papas in 1966. Co-written by band members John Phillips and Denny Doherty, it was released as a single in June 1966 (WLS played it most of that month) and peaked at number one on the RPM Canadian Singles Chart, number 11 on the UK Singles Chart, and number five on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in July 1966. It appeared on their eponymous second album in September 1966.
One of three songs co-written by the two male members of the group (the others being "Got a Feelin'" and "For the Love of Ivy"), "I Saw Her Again" was inspired by Doherty's brief affair with Michelle Phillips, then married to John Phillips, which, combined with an affair between Michelle Phillips and Gene Clark of The Byrds, resulted in the brief expulsion of Michelle from the group. While mixing the record, engineer Bones Howe punched in the coda vocals too early, inadvertently including Denny's false start on the third chorus ("I saw her..."). Despite attempting to correct the error, the miscued vocal could still be heard on playback. Producer Lou Adler liked the effect and told Howe to leave it in the final mix.
Lou Adler has said that this song was specifically done to try and capture the flavor of what the Beatles had been doing, and that it was intentionally written to be a single.
A light-hearted music video was made to promote the single, in which the four members arrive outside a clothes shop by car and motorcycle, then try on various garments before lying on the floor and hurling the clothes around.
One of the group's most popular songs, "I Saw Her Again" has been featured on numerous compilation albums and is frequently titled "I Saw Her Again Last Night", such as on the sleeve of their first hits collection Farewell to the First Golden Era in October 1967.
The mono 45 version omits the orchestra instrumental break and chorus that follows on the stereo mix, most likely to reduce the running time for the single release, as many 45's of that era were similarly edited for radio play. All Dunhill albums that include the song erroneously show the single playing time of 2:50 instead of the correct time of 3:10.