It's Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It) by The Rolling Stones

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 5 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Solo → 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

• E
  I

Verse 1

• E – A – G (×2)
  I – IV – bIII
• E
  I

Chorus 1

• A – E (×2)
  IV – I
• D
  bVII
• A – E (×2)
  IV – I
• A – D (×2)
  IV – bVII
• A – E
  IV – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge

• B – A (×2)
  V – IV

Solo

• E – A – G – E
  I – IV – bIII – I

Chorus 3

• A – E (×4)
  IV – I
• D
  bVII
• A – E (×14)
  IV – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• G (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.
• D (bVII) 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 0039, 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.