Surfin' U.S.A. by The Beach Boys

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 13

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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

Part 1 (0:00)

• E♭
  I

Part 2 (0:01)

• E♭ – E♭sus4
  I – Isus4
• E♭ – B♭ (×2)
  I – V

Part 3 (0:12)

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

Part 4 (0:24)

• E♭ – B♭ (×2)
  I – V

Part 5 (0:36)

Same chords as Part 3 (0:12).

Part 6 (0:48)

Same chords as Part 4 (0:24).

Part 7 (1:00)

Same chords as Part 3 (0:12).

Part 8 (1:12)

Same chords as Part 4 (0:24).

Part 9 (1:24)

Same chords as Part 3 (0:12).

Part 10 (1:36)

• E♭ – B♭5 – E♭5 – B♭5
  I – V5 – I5 – V5

Part 11 (1:49)

• E♭5 – A♭5 – E♭5 – B♭ – A♭
  I5 – IV5 – I5 – V – IV

Part 12 (2:01)

• E♭ – B♭ – A♭ (×2)
  I – V – IV

Part 13 (2:13)

Same chords as Part 12 (2:01).

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Surfin USA Surfin Safari), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Surfin USA Surfin Safari), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• 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.