Birthday by The Beatles

Overview

Key: A major · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Part → Bridge → Solo → Part → Bridge → Verse → 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.

Key changes

• Bridge 1 moves to C major.
• Solo moves to A major.
• Bridge 2 moves to C major.
• Verse 2 moves to A major.

Section by section

Intro

• A7 – D7 – A7 – E7 – A7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – I7

Verse 1

• A7 – D7 – A7 – E7 – A7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – I7

Part 1

• E
  V

Bridge 1

• C – G7 (×4)
  I – V7
• G7/A♭ – G7/A – G7/B♭ – E/B – E
  V7 (bass A♭) – V7 (bass A) – V7 (bass B♭) – III⁶₄ – III

Solo

• A7 – D7 – A7 – E7 – A7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – I7

Part 2

• A
  I

Bridge 2

• C – G7 (×3)
  I – V7
• C – C/G – G7/A♭ – G7/A – G7/B♭ – E/B – E
  I – I⁶₄ – V7 (bass A♭) – V7 (bass A) – V7 (bass B♭) – III⁶₄ – III

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Outro

• A
  I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• G7/A♭ (V7 (bass A♭)) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• G7/B♭ (V7 (bass B♭)) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.

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.