You Can't Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 10

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Chorus → Interlude → Verse → Chorus → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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

• C – F (×7)
  I – IV
• D
  II
• F – C (×4)
  IV – I
• F
  IV

Verse 1

• C – F (×7)
  I – IV
• D
  II
• F – C (×2)
  IV – I
• F
  IV

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 3

• C – F (×11)
  I – IV
• D – F – C – F
  II – IV – I – IV

Bridge

• Dm7/A – Cmaj7/B – F/C – G/D – F/G
  ii⁴₃ – Imaj⁴₂ – IV⁶₄ – V⁶₄ – IV (bass G)

Chorus 1

• C – F (×3)
  I – IV
• D – F
  II – IV

Interlude

• C – F (×2)
  I – IV

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• C – F (×13)
  I – IV

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
C	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Interlude, Outro
F	IV	In the key	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Interlude, Outro
D	II	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus
Dm7/A	ii⁴₃	In the key	Bridge
Cmaj7/B	Imaj⁴₂	Home chord (tonic)	Bridge
F/C	IV⁶₄	In the key	Bridge
G/D	V⁶₄	In the key	Bridge
F/G	IV (bass G)	In the key	Bridge

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 98% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.