Single:
I Saw Her Again entered the Australian singles chart* on 23 July 1966 and peaked at #9. It was #72 on the Top 100 of 1966.
Album:
The song is on the 1966 album The Mamas & the Papas.
Songwriters:
John Phillips, Denny Doherty
Producer:
Lou Adler
Record label of Australian release:
RCA
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
Wikipedia:
I Saw Her Again was inspired by Denny 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 Doherty’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.
Adler has said that this song was specifically done to try and capture the flavour of what the Beatles had been doing, and that it was intentionally written to be a single.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Saw_Her_Again
Music Video (above):
A light-hearted music video was made to promote the single, in which the four members arrive outside De Voss, a clothes shop on Sunset Plaza on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, by motorcycle (John) then car (in order, Michelle, Denny, Cass), with Michelle and Cass “examining” various garments and John spraying the air (and his glasses suddenly disappearing). Denny smokes a cigarette before they all lie on the floor and hurl clothes around. They then leave the store (first Denny and Cass, then John and Michelle), walking away from their vehicles. About ten seconds into the video, John and Michelle suddenly switch between their motorcycle and car before entering the store.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Saw_Her_Again#Music_video
Lyrics:
I saw her again last night,
And you know that I shouldn’t
Just string her along; it’s just not right
If I couldn’t I wouldn’t.
But what can I do; I’m lonely too.
And it makes me feel so good to know
She’ll never leave me.
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 60s
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