California Girls by The Beach Boys

Overview

Key: B major · Chords used: 10 · Sections: 11

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Chorus → Verse ×2 → Chorus → Break → Outro → Outro ×2

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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

• B – B7 – B – A – B
  I – I7 – I – bVII – I

Verse 1

• B – A/B – E – F♯
  I – bVII (bass B) – IV – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 1

• B – C♯m7 – A – Bm7 – G – Am7 – B
  I – ii7 – bVII – i7 – bVI – bvii7 – I

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Break

• B – C♯m7
  I – ii7

Outro 1

• B – C♯m7
  I – ii7

Outro 2

Same chords as Outro 1.

Outro 3

Same chords as Outro 1.

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
B	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Break, Outro
B7	I7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro
A	bVII	Borrowed from B minor	Intro, Chorus
A/B	bVII (bass B)	Borrowed from B minor	Verse
E	IV	In the key	Verse
F♯	V	In the key	Verse
C♯m7	ii7	In the key	Chorus, Break, Outro
Bm7	i7	Borrowed from B minor	Chorus
G	bVI	Borrowed from B minor	Chorus
Am7	bvii7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Chorus

Harmonic highlights

• A (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.
• A/B (bVII (bass B)) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.
• Bm7 (i7) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.
• G (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 96% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.