The Beatles · from Let It Be (rooftop concert, Jan 1969) · McCartney and Lennon compositions joined
A study in a three-dominant-seventh chorus and two songs stacked into one.
McCartney's blues-rock riff in A drives to a chorus that stacks E7, G7, and D7 (5, ♭7, 4 all as dominants), then Lennon's separately-written “everybody had a hard year” song plays on top of the return, giving a rare Beatles moment of polyphonic song-collage.
This is one of the songs the Beatles played on their famous rooftop concert, in a home key of A major.
Most of the song rocks back and forth between two chords, home (A) and its friendly neighbor (D).
The catchy chorus adds three tense chords in a row: E7, G7, D7. All three are dominant sevenths that make you want the home chord to come back.
Two of those chords (G7 and D7) are borrowed from the mixolydian version of the key, which gives the chorus its rock-and-roll bite.
The trick at the end: Paul and John wrote two different songs and stitched them together, so both play at the same time in the last section.
To see the exact chords and key, open Pollack or Isophonics.
The song is centered on A major, but the chord palette pulls in the mixolydian ♭7 (G) and its dominant-seventh flavor, giving the harmony a bluesy, non-diatonic edge.
The verse is diatonic (A, D); the chorus flips into the borrowed flat-side chords for tension.
McCartney's verse plays a simple I and IV vamp (A and D), with the bass and rhythm guitar carrying most of the interest instead of any chord change.
The harmonic simplicity is deliberate, because it clears the ground for the chorus's three-dominant-seventh climb.
The chorus runs E7 (5, the diatonic dominant), then G7 (♭7, borrowed from A mixolydian), then D7 (4 with a seventh, the blues subdominant), all three as dominant-quality chords resolving to A.
Three dominant sevenths in a row, each pulling home from a different scale degree, is the harmonic hook of the song.
The G7 chord is not in the key of A major; it belongs to A mixolydian, the mode with a lowered seventh.
Borrowing that chord (and its dominant-seventh coloring) is what turns the chorus from a plain diatonic passage into a rock-blues climb.
McCartney's “I've got a feeling” and Lennon's “everybody had a hard year” were written separately, in the same key and tempo, then stitched together for the album.
At the reprise both songs play at the same time in polyphonic counterpoint, a rare Beatles moment of two independent melodies over shared harmony.
| Degree | Chord | Nashville | Roman |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A (A7) | 1 (1(7)) | I |
| 4 | D (D7) | 4 (4(7)) | IV |
| 5 | E (E7) | 5 (5(7)) | V |
| b7 | G (G7) | b7 (b7(7)) | ♭VII (borrowed) |
Chords sourced from a public transcription, in A major with mixolydian ♭7 borrowing.
Reading the numbers: each is a scale degree in A. Plain = major, (7) = a dominant-seventh coloring, b-degrees are borrowed from A mixolydian. Here the chorus stacks three dominant sevenths: 5(7), ♭7(7), 4(7).
The seventh chords in the chorus and outro are shown below (low E to high e; x = mute).
Prose analysis of the two-song join, the mixolydian ♭7 borrowing, and the three-dominant chorus.
Open Pollack mirror →Downloadable chord and key files (per-album zip that includes I've Got a Feeling).
Open Isophonics →Roman-numeral function and melody for the verse and chorus.
Open the song page →