Back to WA's home page |
Back to Song Transcriptions page |
Back to the top of this song
Words and music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. As recorded by The Beatles on their EMI Parlaphone album A Hard Day's Night (July 1964), and on a Capitol single the same year.
In G, though the Beatles recorded it in C. Consider capo-ing up two to A.
INTRO: (tacet) Bm Em Bm Em Am7 D7
Can't buy me lo... ove... lo... ove... Can't buy me lo... ove....
G G7
1. I'll buy you a diamond ring, my friend, if it makes you feel alright.
C7 G G7
I'll get you anything, my friend, if it makes you feel alright.
D7 C7 (tacet) C7 G7
'Cause I don't care too... much for money... (for) money can't buy me love.
G G7
2. I'll give you all I've got to give, if you say you'll love me too.
C7 G G7
I may not have a lot to give, but what I've got I'll give to you.
D7 C7 (tacet) C7 G7
I don't care too... much for money... (for) money can't buy me love.
Bm Em (C7) G
REFRAIN: Can't buy me lo...ove... everybody tells me so...
Bm Em Am7 D7
Can't buy me lo...ove... no, no, no, no...
G G7
3. Say you don't need no diamond rings, and I'll be satisfied.
C7 G G7
Tell me that you want the kind of things... that money just can't buy.
D7 C7 (tacet) C7 G7
I don't care too... much for money... money can't buy me love.
Owww! guitar solo -George [Headphones reveal another (botched?) guitar solo buried underneath it!]
REFRAIN
G G7
4. Say you don't need no diamond rings, and I'll be satisfied.
C7 G G7
Tell me that you want the kind of things... that money just can't buy.
D7 C7 (tacet) C7 G7
I don't care too... much for money... money can't buy me love.
OUTRO: Bm Em Bm Em Am7 D7 G
Can't buy me lo... ove... lo... ove... Can't buy me lo... ove.... oh.
Editor's notes:
Can't Buy Me Love was recorded 29 January 1964 at Pathé Marconi Studios, Paris. The producer was George Martin, with Norman Smith as head engineer. John is credited with rhythm guitar, and George is credited with "12-string lead guitar" (it sounds like his Gretsch 6-string hollow-body to me). It was a also a no. 1 single for the Beatles in the U.S., on the Capitol label. The flip side was the cowbell blowout You Can't Do That. - http://www.discographynet.com/beatles/btcbml.html, 31 July 1999
LYRICS: Based on careful listening to the recording, as well as transcriptions found on the WWWeb. Confidence: 99%. Lead vocalist Paul sings the "'Cause" before "I don't care too much for..." only on the first verse. He also sings the "for" in "...for money can't buy me love." on the first verse, but progressively slurs past it, until it's inaudible, if there at all, on the last two verses.
CHORD PROGRESSION: Nothing odd, but it sounded fresh at the time to jump back and forth between a I7 - IV7 - V7 R&B type verse, and the pop-ish circle-of-fifths refrain, with its alternating minor 7th and 7th chords. John and George probably played nothing but 7th chords all the way through the verses, but I'm inclined to lead off with a straight G major triad, and then switch to the G7, as I've written it out.
The Beatles recorded this song in C, but that pitches it very high (or very low) indeed. The version on the Anthology album is in D, however! G works much better for a limited-range tenor voice like mine. Consider capo-ing up two to A, though. It's brighter, especially for the vocal.
["(tacet)" means sing unaccompanied until the next chord.]
One transcription suggest a C7 on "everybody" in the refrain. There's no evidence of it in the recording, but I am sometimes tempted to play it, partly because it includes the Bb sung note. See what you think.
I like to use the G7 on the left for the tonic chord. Trading the third on the 2nd string for the fifth (d) gives it more 'bite', and it's much easier to play, at least on an acoustic, than a barred G7.
The main rhythm guitar is all but inaudible in the mix, drowned under the drums and bass. In the refrains, however, George (I suppose) clangs trebly barre chords for the key of C equivalents to the Em and Bm triads (but he skips over the G), and the Am7 and D7 chords. Play the Bm and Em as Em and Am shapes, respectively, at the 7th fret, and drop back to the 5th fret for the Am7 and D7.
The verse chords also work nicely when played as barre chords at the 3rd fret: all three chords fit very economically right into frets 3, 4 and 5, when played as E7, A7 and B7 shapes, as shown below. They sound great if you're playing an electric, have strong hands, or have two players.
G7 G7 [E7 shape] C7 [B7 shape] C7 [A7 shape] D7 [B7 shape] O O x x x x ============= ============= ============= ============= ============= | | | | | O | | | | | | | | | | O | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- | O | | | | | | | | | | | | O | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- O | | | O | O | O | | O | O | O | | O O | O | O | | | | O | ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- | | | | | | | | | O | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | O | | | ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- | | | | | | | O | | | | | | | | | | | | O | O | | O | O | | ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- | | | | | | | | | | O | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 3 5 1 5 7 1 5 7 3 7 1 x 1 3 7 1(3) 5 1 5 7 3 5 x 1 3 7 1 x <- scale position
Finally, a completely silly anecdote from www.kissthisguy.com:
The real lyrics were: "Can't buy me love" But I misheard them as: "Kent Bobby Love"
"Kent Bobby Love was the greatest, luckiest guy in the world to have the Beatles sing about him."
Age when I realized how wrong I had been: 12 Misheard by: Janice
- http://www.kissthisguy.com/archive/lyric1492.html - located 31 July 1999
- WA, 31 July 1999. Last edited 15 August 1999. Formatting last tweaked 15 Aug 1999.
[Internet Exploder 3.0 (and earlier?) users: A bug involving the Preformatted Text tag causes IE 3.0 to drastically reduce the size of the font for the song text. IE 4.0 fixes this. Workaround: Click the Refresh button (or type Ctrl-R) several times in quick succession... or give up and download IE 4.0 or newer, or use Netscape Navigator, any version.]
Back to WA's home page |
Back to Song Transcriptions page |
Back to the top of this song