Sidewalk Surfin' by Jan & Dean

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 9 · Sections: 7

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Solo → Verse → 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.

Key changes

• Solo moves to E♭ major.

Section by section

Intro

• D
  I

Verse 1

• D – A – D – G – D – A – F – G – A – D – A
  I – V – I – IV – I – V – bIII – IV – V – I – V

Verse 2

• D – A – D – G – D – A – F – G – A – D – E♭7
  I – V – I – IV – I – V – bIII – IV – V – I – bII7

Solo

• E♭ – B♭ – E♭
  I – V – I

Verse 3

• A♭ – E♭ – B♭ – G♭ – A♭ – B♭ – E♭
  IV – I – V – bIII – IV – V – I

Verse 4

• E♭ – B♭ – E♭ – E♭7 – A♭ – E♭ – B♭ – G♭ – A♭ – B♭ – E♭
  I – V – I – I7 – IV – I – V – bIII – IV – V – I

Outro

• B♭ – G♭ – A♭ – B♭ – E♭ (×5)
  V – bIII – IV – V – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• F (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• G♭ (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• E♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1272, 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.