The Greatest Oldies Music

Oldies Musics

The Mamas & The Papas – I Saw Her Again

The Mamas & the Papas: Inside the Band's Love Quadrangle, Drug Problems and Hit Songs

About the Song

The Mamas & the Papas were an American folk rock vocal group that recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968. The group consisted of four members: Denny Doherty, Cass Elliot, John Phillips, and Michelle Phillips. They were known for their distinctive harmonies and their eclectic mix of musical styles, which included folk, rock, pop, and psychedelic music.

“I Saw Her Again” is one of the Mamas & the Papas’ most popular songs. It was written by John Phillips and released in 1966 as the second single from their second album, The Mamas & the Papas. The song reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became a worldwide hit.

The song is a classic example of the Mamas & the Papas’ sound. It features their signature harmonies and a catchy melody. The lyrics of the song are about a man who sees his ex-lover again and is reminded of their time together. The song is full of nostalgia and longing, and it captures the essence of heartbreak.

“I Saw Her Again” has been covered by many artists over the years, including The Beach Boys, The Carpenters, and Elton John. It is a timeless classic that continues to be enjoyed by generations of listeners.

Here are some additional details about the song:

  • The song was written by John Phillips, who was the leader of the Mamas & the Papas.
  • The song was produced by Lou Adler, who was also the producer of the Mamas & the Papas’ other albums.
  • The song was recorded in Los Angeles, California.
  • The song was released in 1966 as the second single from the Mamas & the Papas’ second album, The Mamas & the Papas.
  • The song reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became a worldwide hit.

Here are some interesting facts about the song:

  • The song was inspired by John Phillips’ ex-wife, Michelle Phillips.
  • The song was originally recorded as a demo by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips.
  • The song was featured in the 1967 film The Graduate.
  • The song has been covered by many artists over the years, including The Beach Boys, The Carpenters, and Elton John.

Stream The Mamas & The Papas - California Dreamin' (Mita Gami Edit) by Mita Gami | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Video

Lyrics: I Saw Her Again

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.I’m in way over my head;
Now she thinks that I love her (yeah, yeah)
Because that’s what I said
Though I never think of her.
(No, no, never think of her)But what can I do? I’m lonely too.
And it makes me feel so good to know
(And it makes me feel so good to know…)
She’ll never leave me.Every time I see that girl,
You know I wanna lay down and die.
But I really need that girl
Though I’m living a lie;
(Though I’m living a lie…)
It makes me wanna cryI 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 then 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.
(to know…know)But what can I do? I’m lonely too.
Yeah, and it makes me feel so good to know
She’ll never leave me.

Every time I see that girl,
You know I wanna lay down and die.
But I really need that girl
Though I’m living a lie
(Though I’m living a lie…)
It makes me wanna cry.

I saw her…
I saw her again last night.
And you know that I shouldn’t (no, no)
Just string her along; it’s just not right.
If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t;
I’m in way over my head (you say…)
Now she thinks that I love her (yeah, yeah)
Because that’s what I said…

Related Post

On June 26, 1977, thousands of fans filled Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, believing they were about to enjoy another unforgettable Elvis Presley concert. No one inside the building knew they were witnessing the final performance of the King of Rock and Roll. As Elvis walked onto the stage, the crowd rose to its feet, cheering just as they had done for more than twenty years. For a few hours, nothing seemed different.

In the final years of his life, Elvis Presley carried a burden that few people truly understood. Behind the sold out concerts and cheering crowds was a man living with constant pain, failing health, and overwhelming exhaustion. Yet every time the curtain rose, he did everything he could to give his fans the performance they had been waiting for. No matter how difficult life became, Elvis never wanted the audience to leave disappointed.

In February 1977, many fans noticed that Elvis Presley looked very different from only a few days earlier. His face seemed thinner, his body had changed, and rumors quickly spread. Some people judged him without knowing the truth. What they were actually seeing was not a man who had stopped caring for himself, but someone whose body was struggling with serious health problems after years of pushing himself beyond his limits.

You Missed

Country

AN ACCIDENTAL BLOWN TRANSFORMER IN A NASHVILLE STUDIO CREATED A TORN, BROKEN BASS TONE THAT THE PLAYER HATED—AND ACCIDENTALLY LAUNCHED THE ENTIRE ERA OF ROCK GUITAR FUZZ.In 1961, session guitarist Grady Martin was setting up his six-string bass inside a small Nashville studio on Sixteenth Avenue. The engineer told him to wait so he could walk over to the control room and turn the level down first. But Grady tapped a single note anyway, and a transformer in the console blew out.When the bass came back through the speakers, it sounded thick, torn, and wrecked—like a brass horn forced through a broken radio. Grady hated it and wanted it gone. But the crew kept it, and that raw, buzzing distortion ended up right at the 1:25 mark of Marty Robbins’ “Don’t Worry.” The song became a massive smash, spending ten straight weeks at No. 1 on the country chart and climbing to No. 3 pop.Then things got weird. When they tried to recreate the sound, it was completely gone, refusing to return. One person in that room couldn’t let it go and spent the next year tracking down the ghost in the machine. By 1962, Gibson turned that accidental wreckage into the Maestro Fuzz-Tone, selling 5,000 wedge-shaped boxes. The next year they sold three. The year after that, zero. The pedals sat dead in warehouses until a young guitarist in London plugged into one in 1965—trying to fake a horn line—and changed the sound of rock and roll forever.

Country

DEFYING A GRIM MEDICAL DEADLINE THAT THREATENED TO SILENCE HER FOREVER, NAOMI JUDD BEAT THE ODDS TO STAND BESIDE HER DAUGHTER ONCE MORE UNDER THE BRIGHT LIGHTS OF A NEW ERA.In 1990, just as The Judds were reigning over the absolute summit of country music, Naomi received a devastating diagnosis: hepatitis C, contracted years earlier from an infected needle during her days as a nurse. Doctors delivered a frightening prognosis, warning her that she might have only three years left to live. With grueling treatments making touring physically impossible, the legendary mother-daughter duo brought an abrupt halt to their historic run, bidding an emotional farewell to fans on December 4, 1991.While Wynonna forged ahead into a celebrated solo career, Naomi retreated from the spotlight to fight for her life through years of exhausting therapies under the shadow of a ticking clock. Then, the tide finally turned. By 1998, tests confirmed the virus had gone into remission, shattering the timeline the medical world had drawn for her. On New Year’s Eve 1999, the ghosts of that grim prediction were left behind as The Judds reunited for a triumphant, full-scale concert in Phoenix. The woman who had once quietly prepared for the end found herself standing tall under the arena lights once again, sharing a stage with the daughter who had carried their shared dream forward—having officially outrun the deadline that tried to steal her story.

Country

BURDENED BY DECADES OF MISDIAGNOSED ILLNESS THAT ROBBED HIM OF HIS BRILLIANT MIND, KRIS KRISTOFFERSON STILL LEFT BEHIND AN IMMORTAL LYRICAL LEGACY. Kris Kristofferson didn’t just write country songs; he fundamentally rewrote what the genre’s lyrics could hold, transforming loneliness, shame, and desire into plainspoken truths with timeless anthems like “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” A Rhodes scholar turned Army captain and janitor at Columbia Records, he carried the grit of real life straight onto the page, creating art that sounded like someone finally telling the unvarnished truth. But long before his passing in 2024 at age eighty-eight, a cruel shadow began to fall over his towering intellect as words started slipping through his fingers. Doctors initially diagnosed him with Alzheimer’s disease, subjecting him to years of heavy medications and cognitive decline for a condition he may never have actually had. The man who had once captured the entire human experience in a few verses found himself writing the most heartbreaking lyric of his life: an unfinished song about an empty chair and a haunting realization that he might be the one missing. Then, in 2016, a vital medical breakthrough revealed a long-undetected case of Lyme disease. Following treatment, his wife Lisa shared that he suddenly snapped back—clear-eyed and luminous, even if the restoration couldn’t completely reverse the years already lost. Though he couldn’t reclaim every stolen memory, Kristofferson’s final chapter added a poignant, tragic depth to a life already defined by raw honesty. He left behind a catalog that changed American songwriting forever, anchored by the unforgettable image of a legendary poet wrestling with the ghost of a brilliant mind, and ultimately finding enough of himself to finish his final song before the curtain fell.

Country

STANDING FACE-TO-FACE OUTSIDE THE HALL OF FAME FOR THEIR FIRST REUNION IN DECADES, NAOMI AND WYNONNA JUDD SHARED A FLEETING, HEARTBREAKING FINAL MOMENT IN THE NASHVILLE WIND. On April 11, 2022, the spring wind whipped through downtown Nashville as Naomi and Wynonna Judd stepped outside the Country Music Hall of Fame. It marked their first awards show performance together in more than twenty years, with a soaring gospel choir in white robes standing behind them. Mid-song, caught in the sheer emotional weight of the moment, Wynonna turned to her mother and spoke the words aloud: “This is really happening.” Earlier that day, a camera crew had asked Naomi a simple question about which single song she wanted to be remembered for. Her response—”Love Can Build a Bridge”—would soon carry an unbearable, prophetic resonance. That exact night, the legendary mother-daughter duo announced a ten-show farewell tour, celebrating a catalog that had shaped generations of country music fans. But the Hall of Fame building looming right behind them was preparing an induction they would never experience together. Just nineteen days later, on April 30, Naomi passed away after a long battle with mental illness. The induction ceremony went forward the following day, transforming a celebration into a gathering of collective grief where Wynonna stood before the crowd with no speech prepared, having always assumed her mother would do the talking. “Though my heart is broken, I will continue to sing,” Wynonna vowed into the silence, stepping into a future stripped of the voice that had anchored her entire life. That reunion outside the Hall of Fame proved to be more than a triumphant return; it was a final, fragile bridge built across years of distance just in time. Through profound sorrow and timeless harmony, their closing anthem remains etched in music history as a testament to a bond that death could silence, but never truly break.