Back in the USSR by The Beatles

Overview

Key: A major · Chords used: 10 · Sections: 12

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Solo → Chorus → Bridge → Verse → Chorus → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). This page shows that transcription as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

Intro

• E – E7
  V – V7

Verse 1

• A – D – C – D (×2)
  I – IV – bIII – IV

Chorus 1

• A – C – D – A – D – D♯ – E
  I – bIII – IV – I – IV – #IV – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

• A – C – D – A – A/B – A/C – A/C♯
  I – bIII – IV – I – I (bass B) – I (bass C) – I⁶

Bridge 1

• D – A – A/B – A/C – A/C♯ – D – A/C♯ – C – B – E – D – A – D – D♯ – E
  IV – I – I (bass B) – I (bass C) – I⁶ – IV – I⁶ – bIII – II – V – IV – I – IV – #IV – V

Solo

• A – D – C – D (×2)
  I – IV – bIII – IV

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 2.

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• A
  I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• C (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.
• B acts as V/V: it resolves to E.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). Expert chord and structure annotation of the original recording (CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo).
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.