Can't Buy Me Love by The Beatles

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Solo → Chorus → 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.

Section by section

Intro

• C
  I
• Em – Am (×2)
  iii – vi
• Dm – G
  ii – V

Verse 1

• C7 – F7 – C7 – G – F7 – C7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V – IV7 – I7

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 1

• Em – Am – C – Em – Am – Dm – G
  iii – vi – I – iii – vi – ii – V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Solo

• C7 – F7 – C7 – G – F7 – C7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V – IV7 – I7

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Outro

• Em – Am (×2)
  iii – vi
• Dm – G – C7
  ii – V – I7

Chord vocabulary

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.