I'll Be Back by The Beatles

Overview

Key: A major · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Bridge → 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

• F♯7sus4(no5) – A
  VI7sus4(no5) – I

Verse 1

• Am – G – F – E – A (×2)
  i – bVII – bVI – V – I

Bridge 1

• F♯m – Bm
  vi – ii
• E – D (×2)
  V – IV
• E
  V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 2

• Bm – C♯m – F♯m – B
  ii – iii – vi – II
• D – E (×3)
  IV – V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 3

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Verse 4

• Am – G – F – E – A
  i – bVII – bVI – V – I

Outro

• Am – A
  i – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Am (i) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.
• G (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.
• F (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.

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.