Can’t Buy Me Love | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| Em | Am | Em | Am | Dm | G |
Can’t buy me love, love. Can’t buy me love.
Verse 1
| C | C | C | C |
I’ll buy you a diamond ring my friend, if it makes you feel alright.
| F | F | C | C |
I’ll get you anything my friend, if it makes you feel alright.
| G7 | F7 N.C | F7 | C |
‘Cause I don’t care too much for money, for money can’t buy me love.
Verse 2
| C | C | C | C |
I’ll give you all I’ve got to give, if you say you love me too.
| F | F | C | C |
I may not have a lot to give but what I’ve got, I’ll give to you.
| G7 | F7 N.C | F7 | C |
I don’t care too much for money, for money can’t buy me love.
Chorus 1
| Em | Am | C | C |
Can’t buy me love, everybody tells me so.
| Em | Am | Dm7 | G |
Can’t buy me love. No, no, no, nooo.
Verse 3
| C | C | C | C |
Say you don’t need no diamond ring and I’ll be satisfied.
| F | F | C | C |
Tell me that you want the kind of things, that money just can’t buy.
| G7 | F7 N.C | F7 | C | C |
I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love. Ah-oww.
Solo
| C | C | C | C |
| F | F7 F6 | C7 | C7 |
| G7 | F7 | C | C |
Chorus 2
| Em | Am | C | C |
Can’t buy me love, everybody tells me so.
| Em | Am | Dm7 | G |
Can’t buy me love. No, no, no, nooo.
Verse 4
| C | C | C | C |
Say you don’t need no diamond rings and I’ll be satisfied.
| F | F | C | C |
Tell me that you want the kind of things, that money just can’t buy.
| G7 | F7 N.C | F7 | C |
I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love.
Chorus 3
| Em | Am | Em | Am | Dm7 | G | C | C |
Can’t buy me love, love. Can’t buy me love, oh.
Can’t Buy Me Love’s chords and progressions
Mixing a standard 12-bar blues in C for the verse, with the two minor chords III and VI, finished off by a II – V, Can’t Buy Me Love’s chords is textbook pop and rock n roll songwriting.
The intro chorus moves Em – Am, a progression we usually associate with VI – II, the beginning of a blues in Em. But in Can’t Buy Me Love, this is the twist to the old familiarity.
As what follows is Dm – G, we get our ears bent as we realize that it must have been III – VI instead, the end of a minor blues. This is extremely clever!
The verse is just a 12-bar blues but without the seemingly obligatory Dom7 chords at first.
| C | C | C | C |
| F | F | C | C |
| G7 | F7 N.C | F7 | C |
When the chorus comes back it is not the same as the intro chorus. Now we go from Em – Am – C. As if the chorus has been married to the verse – simplistic genius!
Finally, the outro chorus is the same as the intro, making us feel as if it all made sense, which it clearly did – you can’t buy love!
Can’t Buy Me Love was one of many early hits by The Beatles
As the fourth best-selling single of the ’60s (She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand was #1 and #2!), Can’t Buy Me Love was an instant success, topping the charts in not just the native U.K. and the U.S., but the world over.
This was The Beatles‘ sixth single and by now, the band was world-famous. Everywhere they went, the fans went crazy.
Off the album, A Hard Days Night, which was actually a soundtrack to a film bearing the same name, Can’t Buy Me Love was not the only classic Beatles recording.
Apart from the obvious title track, it also contained the amazing And I Love Her and If I Fell.
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