Eight Days a Week by The Beatles

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 16

Form: Intro → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Bridge → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Bridge → Verse → 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

• Dadd9 – E/D – G/D – Dadd9
  Iadd9 – II (bass D) – IV⁶₄ – Iadd9

Verse 1

• D – E – G (×2)
  I – II – IV
• D
  I

Pre-Chorus 1

• Bm – G – Bm – E
  vi – IV – vi – II

Chorus 1

• D – E – G – D
  I – II – IV – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Pre-Chorus 2

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge 1

• A – Bm – E – G – A
  V – vi – II – IV – V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Pre-Chorus 3

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Pre-Chorus 4

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 4

• D – E
  I – II
• G – D (×3)
  IV – I

Outro

• Dadd9 – E/D – G/D – Dadd9
  Iadd9 – II (bass D) – IV⁶₄ – Iadd9

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
Dadd9	Iadd9	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Outro
E/D	II (bass D)	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro, Outro
G/D	IV⁶₄	In the key	Intro, Outro
D	I	Home chord (tonic)	Verse, Chorus
E	II	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge
G	IV	In the key	Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge
Bm	vi	In the key	Pre-Chorus, Bridge
A	V	In the key	Bridge

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0727, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Cross-check: 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). Independently transcribed; it matches this page's chords closely (similarity 91%).
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.