I Saw Her Standing There by The Beatles

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 9

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

• E7
  I7

Verse 1

• E7 – A7 – E7 – B7 – E7 – E7/G♯ – A7 – C – E7 – B7 – E7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – I7 – I⁶₅ – IV7 – bVI – I7 – V7 – I7

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 1

• A7 – B7 – A7
  IV7 – V7 – IV7

Verse 3

• E7 – A7 – E7 – B7 – E7 – E7/G♯ – A7 – C
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – I7 – I⁶₅ – IV7 – bVI
• E7 – B7 (×2)
  I7 – V7

Instrumental

• E7 – A7 – E7 – B7 – E7 – E7/G♯ – A7 – Am – E7 – B7 – E7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – I7 – I⁶₅ – IV7 – iv – I7 – V7 – I7

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Outro

• E7 – B7 (×2)
  I7 – V7
• A7 – E7
  IV7 – I7

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
E7	I7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro, Verse, Instrumental, Outro
A7	IV7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse, Chorus, Instrumental, Outro
B7	V7	In the key	Verse, Chorus, Instrumental, Outro
E7/G♯	I⁶₅	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse, Instrumental
C	bVI	Borrowed from E minor	Verse
Am	iv	Borrowed from E minor	Instrumental

Harmonic highlights

• C (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.
• Am (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0853, 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 80%).
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.