I Don't Want to Spoil the Party by The Beatles

Overview

Key: G major · Chords used: 16 · 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 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

• G – G7 – G6 – D7sus4 – Dm7 – D7sus2 – D – D/E – D7/F♯ – G
  I – I7 – I6 – V7sus4 – v7 – V7sus2 – V – V (bass E) – V⁶₅ – I

Verse 1

• G – D7♯9 – Em – B – Am – D – G – F – G
  I – V7#9 – vi – III – ii – V – I – bVII – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 1

• G – Em – A – C – D (×2)
  I – vi – II – IV – V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Solo

• G – D7♯9 – Em – B – Am – D – G – F – G
  I – V7#9 – vi – III – ii – V – I – bVII – I

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Outro

• G – G7 – G6 – D7sus4 – Dm7 – D7sus2 – D – D/E – D7/F♯ – G
  I – I7 – I6 – V7sus4 – v7 – V7sus2 – V – V (bass E) – V⁶₅ – I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
G	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Solo, Outro
G7	I7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro, Outro
G6	I6	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Outro
D7sus4	V7sus4	In the key	Intro, Outro
Dm7	v7	Borrowed from G minor	Intro, Outro
D7sus2	V7sus2	In the key	Intro, Outro
D	V	In the key	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Solo, Outro
D/E	V (bass E)	In the key	Intro, Outro
D7/F♯	V⁶₅	In the key	Intro, Outro
D7♯9	V7#9	Borrowed from G minor	Verse, Solo
Em	vi	In the key	Verse, Chorus, Solo
B	III	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse, Solo
Am	ii	In the key	Verse, Solo
F	bVII	Borrowed from G minor	Verse, Solo
A	II	Outside the key (chromatic)	Chorus
C	IV	In the key	Chorus

Harmonic highlights

• Dm7 (v7) is borrowed from the parallel key, G minor.
• D7♯9 (V7#9) is borrowed from the parallel key, G minor.
• F (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, G minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1213, 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 76%).
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.