The Beatles · non-album single (April 1969) · Lennon composition
A study in the E7 secondary dominant, a Chuck-Berry I-IV-V, and a plain V chord at the bridge cadence.
The verse is a plain E chord that becomes E7 (I becomes V of IV), pulling the ear to A for the chorus. The whole song moves between three chords: E (1), A (4), B7 (5(7)). The bridge closes on a bare B triad, a rare V-without-the-7th half-cadence.
The home key is E major, and the song uses three chords: E (home), A (four-up), and B7 (five-up).
The verse trick is that the E chord adds a seventh (E7) before the A chord comes in. That added seventh points at A from a fifth above; it turns the home chord into a temporary V-of-IV, making the pull to A feel stronger than a plain chord change.
The whole song is a Chuck-Berry-style rock-and-roll I-IV-V.
The bridge ends on plain B (no seventh), an unusual choice. B alone is a suspended pause called a half-cadence, an incomplete stop that lets the ear expect the E home chord to come back.
To see the exact chords and key, open Pollack or Isophonics.
The home key is E major, and the harmonic vocabulary is the smallest possible for a pop song: three chords, 1 (E), 4 (A), and 5(7) (B7). Every section uses those three, plus one added dominant seventh on the tonic (E7) as a device.
No modulation, no borrowed chord, no chromatic passing tone anywhere in the song.
Every verse ends E → E7 → A. Adding the ♭7 (D natural) to the tonic E chord turns it into a dominant-seventh sonority. That E7 is no longer functioning as the tonic; it is a secondary dominant, the V of IV, pointing at A from a fifth above.
This is the single most-used trick in early rock-and-roll: Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode, Little Richard's Long Tall Sally, the Beatles' own early singles. Adding the seventh is what makes the move to the 4-chord feel inevitable.
The chorus runs A (4), E (1), B7 (5(7)), E (1). Read in Roman numerals it is IV-I-V7-I, one of the oldest closing progressions in tonal music.
The plagal (4-1) move at the top and the authentic (5-1) move at the bottom pair a soft approach with a strong one, giving the chorus both openness and closure inside two bars.
The bridge palette is A (4), B7 (5(7)), then B (5 without the seventh). Dropping the seventh from the final B is the tell: the chord functions as a plain V-triad, a half-cadence that pauses on the dominant instead of resolving to the tonic.
The half-cadence is a common formal device in classical music (Mozart sonatas open with them constantly) and rare in three-chord rock. Its appearance here gives the bridge a Bach-chorale gravity that the rest of the song does not have.
The full structure is five verse-chorus pairs, one bridge between the third and fourth chorus, and an outro on B7 → E → E7(13) (a colored tonic with an added sixth and ninth). No modulation, no key change, no borrowed chord.
The whole song is E, A, B7 (with E7 as a device and B as a bridge half-cadence), three chords across the entire piece.
| Degree | Chord | Nashville | Roman |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | E (E7 as V/IV) | 1 (1(7)) | I (V/IV) |
| 4 | A | 4 | IV |
| 5 | B (B7) | 5 (5(7)) | V (V7) |
Chords sourced from a public transcription, in E major.
Reading the numbers: each is a scale degree in E. Plain = major, (7) = a dominant-seventh coloring. The E7 in the verse functions as V of IV (pointing to A). The bare B triad in the bridge functions as a plain V half-cadence.
The three chords in standard open voicings plus the E7 device (low E to high e; x = mute).
Prose analysis of the Chuck-Berry three-chord palette and the E7 secondary-dominant device.
Open Pollack mirror →Downloadable chord and key files (non-album singles zip includes this track).
Open Isophonics →Roman-numeral function and melody for the verse and chorus.
Open the song page →