Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John

Overview

Key: F major · Chords used: 17 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Chorus → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Chorus → Chorus

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

• F – C/E – Dm – Dm/C – B♭ – C – F
  I – V⁶ – vi – vi (bass C) – IV – V – I

Verse 1

• Gm7 – B♭ – C – F – F/A – B♭ – E♭ – C7/E – F (×2)
  ii7 – IV – V – I – I⁶ – IV – bVII – V⁶₅ – I

Chorus 1

• B♭m – E♭ – A♭ – D♭ – B♭m – C7
  iv – bVII – bIII – bVI – iv – V7

Chorus 2

• F – A7 – B♭ – F – D7 – Gm7 – C – F – C/E – Dm7 – A7 – B♭ – D♭ – F – C/E – Dm – Dm/C – B♭ – C
  I – III7 – IV – I – VI7 – ii7 – V – I – V⁶ – vi7 – III7 – IV – bVI – I – V⁶ – vi – vi (bass C) – IV – V

Chorus 3

• B♭m – E♭ – A♭ – D♭ – B♭m – C7 – F
  iv – bVII – bIII – bVI – iv – V7 – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 5

Same chords as Chorus 2.

Chorus 6

Same chords as Chorus 3.

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• B♭m (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• A♭ (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• D♭ (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• D7 acts as V/ii: it resolves to Gm7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0842, 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.