Chords + Lyrics | Drive My Car
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 Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Drive My Car. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, horns, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
Let’s dissect Drive My Car‘s chords by considering what they become when we take all bass lines and licks into account.
Intro
The intro starts with a bar that can be described as Dom7#9, as it contains the m3rd/#9, 3rd, and b7. The second bar shifts to D9, as the m3rd disappears. To see this clearly, you’ll need TAB—find it further down this guitar lesson.
But before looking at the TAB, try figuring out how to count the intro yourself. On what beat does it start? It’s not as obvious as it seems…
Verse
After the intro—playable as either chords or a minor pentatonic and major pentatonic lick—the verse follows an 8-bar blues in D, using these chord extensions:
- The I chord, when considering the bass line, can be described as D7#9.
- The IV chord could be seen as Gadd9.
- The V chord features a dom7#5 extension.
Here are the verse chords for Drive My Car:
| D7#9 (I) | Gadd9 (IV) | D7#9 | Gadd9 |
| D7#9 | Gadd9 | A7#5 (V) | A7#5 |
Chorus
Unusually, the chorus begins on VI. Typically, verses are in minor and choruses in major, but Drive My Car flips this.
From Bm (VI), we move to IV, featuring a distinctive extension that moves 5 – 6 – b7 – 6 – 5, clearly drawing from Chuck Berry-style rock ’n’ roll. This pattern repeats before leading into a turnaround.
The turnaround follows a cycle of 4ths, starting on IIx: E – A – D – A. Here, the A chord no longer has the #5 extension.
Here are all the 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) |
Outro
The only other chord progression in Drive My Car appears in the outro, cycling between V – I, just like in the final two bars of the chorus:
||: A7 (V) | D7#9 (I) :||
There’s TAB for all sections, arranged so Drive My Car can be played on just one acoustic guitar while incorporating the bass line and chords. Master this version, and you’ll easily find an electric part for playing it with a band.
Once you’ve studied the TAB and played along with the backing tracks, all you’ll need to remember Drive My Car‘s chords is a simple chord chart—so here’s one I made for you.
Drive My Car Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
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 | TAB
Let’s work our way through all of Drive My Car’s sections using TAB. This will work on just one acoustic, or if you’re the only electric guitarist in a band.
Here’s the intro—make sure you’re counting it right. Start on beat 4 +, like this:
Next, here’s the verse. Make sure you can see all the intervals in these riffs and how they spell the chord names D7#9, Gadd9, and A7#5.
Here’s the chorus. I didn’t call the Bm a Bm7—even though there’s an A (b7) for one 16th note—it just felt like a quick bass line anticipating the beat, not a chord note.
If you loop the last two bars, you get the outro. Here’s what that looks like written on a loop:
When you can play all parts, try it along with the backing tracks—this one is great fun!
Inspired by Respect
As the opening track from their sixth album, Rubber Soul, Drive My Car was released in 1965—though only in the U.K. On the American version of the album, the song was replaced with I’ve Just Seen a Face, another Beatles classic.
This was because, in the U.S., The Beatles were marketed more as a folk act rather than rock ’n’ roll/pop. In fact, the album title Rubber Soul came from the way Americans at the time described the British take on their soul music—as plastic soul.
Primarily a McCartney composition, Drive My Car has an underlying sense of fun. Lennon’s slightly dissonant harmonies and the A7#5 chord add just enough tension to make the song stand out while still keeping it familiar.
Apparently, Drive My Car was inspired by Otis Redding’s original version of Respect—a song that Aretha Franklin would cover two years later, transforming it into one of the most famous soul records of all time.
Other standout tracks on Rubber Soul include Norwegian Wood, Michelle, In My Life, Nowhere Man, We Can Work It Out, I’ve Just Seen a Face, and Girl—an impressive lineup!
Study the chords, lyrics, and chord chart for Drive My Car above to see how Paul put this one together.
Drive My Car Chords: Continue Learning
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