Drive My Car | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| N.C 4 + | D7#9 | D9 |
Verse 1
| D7#9 | Gadd9 | D7#9 | Gadd9 |
Asked a girl what she wanted to be, she said, “Baby, can’t you see?
| D7#9 | Gadd9 | A7#5 | A7#5 |
I wanna be famous, a star of the screen”. But you can do something in between.
Chorus 1
| Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 | Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 |
Baby, you can drive my car, yes, I’m gonna be a star.
| Bm | E A | D7#9 | A7 |
Baby, you can drive my car, and maybe I’ll love you.
Verse 2
I told that girl that my prospects were good, and she said, “Baby, it’s understood,
working for peanuts is all very fine, but I can show you a better time”.
Chorus 2
Baby, you can drive my car, yes, I’m gonna be a star.
Baby, you can drive my car, and maybe I’ll love you.
| A7 |
Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah!
Solo
| D7#9 | Gadd9 | D7#9 | Gadd9 |
| D7#9 | Gadd9 | A7#5 | A7#5 |
Chorus 3
Baby, you can drive my car, yes, I’m gonna be a star.
Baby, you can drive my car, and maybe I’ll love you.
Verse 3
I told that girl I can start right away, When she said, “Listen, babe, I got somethin’ to say,
I got no car and it’s breaking my heart, but I’ve found a driver and that’s a start”.
Chorus 4
Baby, you can drive my car, yes, I’m gonna be a star.
Baby, you can drive my car, and maybe I’ll love you”.
| A7 | D7#9 |
Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah!
Outro
||: A7 | D7#9 :||
||: Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah! :||
Drive My Car Chords: Learn the progressions
Let’s dissect Drive My Car‘s chords by looking at what they become if we consider all bass lines and licks.
Starting with an intro, we can describe the first bar as a Dom7#9 as the m3rd/#9, 3rd, and b7 are all in there.
The second bar is a D9 as there is no m3rd anymore. In order to see this clearly you need TAB, you can see this here: Drive My Car – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Before you look at my TAB, try working out how to count Drive My Car’s intro, ie, on what beat it starts on, it’s not obvious…
After the intro which can be described as chords or as a minor/major pentatonic lick, the verse is essentially an 8-bar blues in D using these chord extensions:
- The I chord, if you add intervals from the bass line, it can be described as a D7#9
- The IV chord could be described as a Gadd9
- The V chord uses a dom7#5 extension
Here’s Drive My Car’s verse chords:
| D7#9 (I) | Gadd9 (IV) | D7#9 | Gadd9 |
| D7#9 | Gadd9 | A7#5 (V) | A7#5 |
The chorus unusually starts on chord VI. Most of the time, verses are in minor, and choruses are major but in Drive My Car, the chords are the other way around.
From the Bm chord (VI), we go to chord IV, which has another characteristic extension going on moving: 5 – 6 – b7 – 6 – 5, clearly flirting with Chuck Berry-style Rock ‘N’ Roll. This is then repeated before we go for a turnaround.
The turnaround uses the cycle of 4th, starting on chord IIx. E – A – D – A. The A chord is now without the #5 extension.
Here are all of Drive My Car’s chorus chords:
| Bm (VI) | G5 (IV) G6 G7 G6 G5 | Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 |
| Bm | E (IIx) A (V) | D7#9 (I) | A7 (V) |
The only other chord progression we find in Drive My Car is during the outro as we move V – I on repeat, just as in the last two bars of the chorus.
||: A7 (V) | D7#9 (I) :||
There’s TAB for all sections of Drive My Car which can be played on just one acoustic guitar, incorporating the bass line and all the chords. Learn this and you’ll easily find an electric part as well for playing this with a band.
After studying the TAB and playing along with the recording, all you’ll need to remember Drive My Car’s chords is a simple chord chart. Here’s one I made for you.

Drive My Car Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Drive My Car Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Drive My Car iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Drive My Car was inspired by Respect!
As the opening tune from their 6th album, Rubber Soul, Drive My Car was released in 1965. Although this is only true in the U.K., on the American release, the song was replaced with I’ve Just Seen A Face, another Beatles classic.
The reasoning for this was that in America, The Beatles were marketed as more of a folk act, not rock n roll/pop.
In fact, the name Rubber Soul came about as the Americans at the time had labelled the Brit’s version of their soul music as plastic soul.
Drive My Car is mainly a McCartney composition with an underlying sense of fun. Lennon’s slightly dissonant harmonies and that A7#5 chord add just enough tension to make it stand out enough to give the necessary familiarity a twist.
Apparently, Drive My Car was inspired by Otis Redding’s original version of Respect, a song Aretha Franklin would cover two years later and in doing so, create the most famous soul song ever.
Other notable tunes on Rubber Soul are Norwegian Wood, Michelle, In My Life, Nowhere Man, We Can Work It Out, I’ve Just Seen A Face, and Girl, pretty impressive!
Study the chords and lyrics for Drive My Car above to find out how Paul put this one together.
Drive My Car Chords | Related Pages
Drive My Car | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Drive My Car by The Beatles using TAB and chord analysis.
| D7#9 | Gadd9 | D7#9 | Gadd9 |
Asked a girl what she wanted to be, she said, “Baby, can’t you see?
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The Beatles tunes
The Beatles are the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in the history of popular music.
As the leaders of the so-called British Invasion, their catchy Rock ‘N’ Roll-infused pop songs took America by storm, creating hysteria everywhere they went.
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About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Drive My Car chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not by practising scales or studying theory in isolation.