By the summer season of 1966, the Mamas and the Papas had been two hits into their American chart profession, with a 3rd single getting larger. The Californian vocal group had been going concerning the enterprise of following the US No.1 and worldwide smash “Monday Monday” when their subsequent single “I Saw Her Again” entered the UK chart on July 28, 1966.
The observe, on RCA in Britain, was already climbing the US charts, on Dunhill, when it made its first look on the UK bestsellers at a reasonably tentative No.38. It was a High 40 newcomer in the identical week as the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” and the Seashore Boys’ “God Only Knows,” which made its chart debut at No.34. Chris Farlowe’s Jagger-Richards cowl “Out Of Time” was the nation’s new No.1.
“I Saw Her Again” climbed the UK countdown over the following month earlier than coming to relaxation in September at No.11. The album that it got here from, The Mamas and the Papas, peaked at No.3 within the British charts in July, in an 18-week run within the High 30.
Written by the group’s John Phillips and Denny Doherty and produced by Lou Adler, “I Saw Her Again” was on its solution to changing into the Mamas and the Papas’ third straight US High 5 hit, reaching No.5 in a nine-week US chart run.
‘I just punched in early’
Engineer “Bones” Howe later revealed of the studio session: “We had been punching vocals in, and once we got here to that half the place the rhythm stops and the group goes, ‘I saw her again last night,’ I simply punched in early. They got here in early, and so we stopped.
“And Lou said, ‘I love it! Leave it in.’ It was an error, it was a mistake. But Lou was wise enough, it caught his ear and he left it. And I learned something from that. You go with your gut. If something catches – there are wonderful mistakes that happen in the studio and you have to learn to catch those when they happen and use them.”
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