Better Things by The Kinks

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 10 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Transition → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). 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

• D – D7/F♯ – G – A (×2)
  I – I⁶₅ – IV – V

Verse

• D – D/F♯ – G – A (×2)
  I – I⁶ – IV – V

Pre-Chorus 1

• D – F♯7 – G – A (×2)
  I – III7 – IV – V
• Bm – Bmadd11/A♯ – Bm/A – E7 – A – G
  vi – viadd11 (bass A♯) – vi (bass A) – II7 – V – IV

Pre-Chorus 2

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 1

• D – G – A (×4)
  I – IV – V

Transition

• D – D/F♯ – G – A (×2)
  I – I⁶ – IV – V

Pre-Chorus 3

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• D – D/F♯ – G – A (×3)
  I – I⁶ – IV – V

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D7/F♯ acts as V/IV: it resolves to G.
• E7 acts as V/V: it resolves to A.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0443, CC0), 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.