Pinball Wizard by The Who

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 27 · Sections: 11

Form: Intro → Pre-Verse → Verse → Verse → Chorus → Pre-Verse → Verse → Chorus → Pre-Verse → Verse → Pre-Verse

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

• Bm7/F♯ – Bm11/F♯ – C♯m7/F♯ – F♯7 – F♯m7 – C♯m7♭5/F♯ – Em/G – F♯7
  vi⁴₃ – vi11 (bass F♯) – vii7 (bass F♯) – III7 – iii7 – viiø7 (bass F♯) – ii⁶ – III7

Pre-Verse 1

• Bsus4 – B (×4)
  VIsus4 – VI

Verse 1

• Bsus4 – B – Asus4 – A – Gsus4 – G – F♯sus4
  VIsus4 – VI – Vsus4 – V – IVsus4 – IV – IIIsus4
• B – A – D – E (×2)
  VI – V – I – II

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 1

• E – F♯ – B (×3)
  II – III – VI
• G – D
  IV – I

Pre-Verse 2

• D7sus4 – D7 (×2)
  I7sus4 – I7

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Pre-Verse 3

• D7sus4 – D7 (×4)
  I7sus4 – I7

Verse 4

• D7sus4 – D7 – C7sus4 – C7 – B♭7sus4 – B♭7 – A7sus4 – A7 – D – C – F
  I7sus4 – I7 – bVII7sus4 – bVII7 – bVI7sus4 – bVI7 – V7sus4 – V7 – I – bVII – bIII

Pre-Verse 4

• B♭7sus4 – B♭7 (×2)
  bVI7sus4 – bVI7

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Gsus4 (IVsus4) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• D7sus4 (I7sus4) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• C7sus4 (bVII7sus4) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• C7 (bVII7) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• C (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• F (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0421, 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.