When I'm Sixty-Four by The Beatles

Overview

Key: D♭ major · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 7

Form: Intro → 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

• D♭ – G♭ – A♭ – D♭
  I – IV – V – I

Verse 1

• D♭ – A♭ – D♭ – D♭7 – G♭ – Edim7/G – D♭/A♭ – B♭7 – E♭9 – A♭ – D♭
  I – V – I – I7 – IV – #ii°⁶₅ – I⁶₄ – VI7 – II9 – V – I

Bridge 1

• B♭m – A♭ – B♭m – F – B♭m – E♭m – G♭ – A♭ – D♭ – A♭
  vi – V – vi – III – vi – ii – IV – V – I – V

Verse 2

• D♭ – A♭ – A♭7 – D♭ – D♭7 – G♭ – Edim7/G – D♭/A♭ – B♭7 – E♭9 – A♭ – D♭
  I – V – V7 – I – I7 – IV – #ii°⁶₅ – I⁶₄ – VI7 – II9 – V – I

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Outro

• D♭ – G♭
  I – IV
• A♭ – D♭ (×2)
  V – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to G♭.
• E♭9 acts as V/V: it resolves to A♭.
• F acts as V/vi: it resolves to B♭m.

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.