Summer Of ’69 | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| D5 | D5 |
Verse 1
| D5 | D5 | A5 | A5 |
I got my first real six-string, bought it at the five and dime.
| D5 | D5 | A5 | A5 |
Played it ’til my fingers bled, was the summer of ’69.
Verse 2
| D5 | D5 | A5 | A5 |
Me, and some guys from school, had a band and we tried real hard.
| D5 | D5 | A5 | A5 |
Jimmy quit and Jody got married, I should’ve known we’d never get far.
Chorus 1
| Bm | A | D | G |
Oh, when I look back now, that summer seemed to last forever.
| Bm | A | D | G |
And if I had the choice. Yeah, I’d always wanna be there.
| Bm | A5 |
Those were the best days of my life.
Instrumental 1
| Dsus2 D Dsus4 | D Dsus2 D | Asus2 A Asus4 | A Asus2 A |
Verse 3
| D5 | D5 | A5 | A5 |
Ain’t no use in complainin’, when you got a job to do.
| D5 | D5 | A5 | A5 |
I spent my evenings down at the drive-in, and that’s when I met you, yeah!
Chorus 2
| Bm | A | D | G |
Standin’ on your mama’s porch, you told me that you’d wait forever.
| Bm | A | D | G |
Oh, and when you held my hand, I knew that it was now or never.
| Bm | A5 |
Those were the best days of my life.
Chorus tag
||: Dsus2 D Dsus4 | D Dsus2 D | Asus2 D Asus4 | A Asus2 A :||
Oh, yeah. Back in the summer of ’69, oh.
Middle 8
| F5 | Bb5 | C5 | Bb5 |
Man, we were killin’ time, we were young and restless, we needed to unwind.
| F5 | Bb5 | C5 | C5 |
I guess nothing can last forever, forever, no.
Instrumental 2 (breakdown)
| Dsus2 D Dsus4 | D Dsus2 D | Asus2 A Asus4 | A Asus2 A |
Yeah.
Verse 4
| Dsus2 D Dsus4 | D Dsus2 D | Asus2 A Asus4 | A Asus2 A |
And now the times are changin’, look at everything that’s come and gone.
| Dsus2 D Dsus4 | D Dsus2 D | Asus2 A Asus4 | A Asus2 A |
Sometimes when I play that old six-string, I think about you, wonder what went wrong.
Chorus 3
| Bm | A | D | G |
Standin’ on your mama’s porch, you told me that it’d last forever.
| Bm | A | D | G |
Oh, and when you held my hand, I knew that it was now or never.
| Bm | A5 |
Those were the best days of my life.
Outro
||: Dsus2 D Dsus4 | D Dsus2 D | Asus2 A Asus4 | A Asus2 A :|| to fade
Oh, yeah. Back in the summer of ’69, uh-huh.
It was the summer of ’69, oh, yeah. Me and my baby in ’69, oh, oh.
It was the summer, summer, summer of ’69, yeah.
Summer Of ’69 Chords: Learn the progressions
The chords for Summer Of ’69 are simple. To begin with, the verse is just I – V, using power chords, like this:
||: D5 (I) | D5 | A5 (V) | A5 :||
The chorus goes VI – V – I – IV, super simple, looks like this:
||: Bm (VI) | A (V) | D (I) | G (IV) :|| Bm | A5 |
The instrumental section is just like the verse over chords I – V, but with these extensions:
| Dsus2 D Dsus4 | D Dsus2 D | Asus2 A Asus4 | A Asus2 A |
Once you’ve seen the accurate TAB that works in a real-world scenario where you are the only guitarist in the band, just seeing these chords will be enough to remind you how to play Summer of ’69.
This is the TAB of the famous instrumental section which is so cleverly held back in the arrangement. I believe most bands and producers would have started the tune with it.
Here’s a link to the complete lesson: Summer Of ’69 – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Summer of ’69 is a perfectly arranged radio hit!
Bryan Adams‘s classic Summer Of ’69 can be found on his fourth album Reckless (1984), amazingly, it wasn’t the lead single.
A worldwide hit, it did best in the U.K. with 2.4 million copies sold. The album sold 12 million worldwide.
If you want a mansion with a tennis court and a pool to come back to in between your world tours, take note of how this has been arranged and produced!
Behind the production is Bryan himself with his straight-to-the-point songwriting but also Bob Clearmountain (Chic, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, and many, many more).
The way the intro and first verse are held back, using only power chords makes the triads of the chorus sound massive.
To then bring in the hook after the chorus is genius, most bands would have put that for the intro.
Only through studying big songs in depth can you train yourself to make the right decisions when recording your own tunes. As you’ve seen here, so much of it is in the arrangement.
Summer Of ’69 Chords | Related Pages
Intermediate Acoustic
Most intermediate acoustic tunes can’t be played using just basic open-position chords. We have to move up the fretboard and play CAGED barre chords as well.
We incorporate bass lines, add licks, extend chords, and play vocal melodies. Most importantly, we’ll invent second guitar parts and play these songs together.
Five similar tunes with chords and lyrics
- (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction chords by The Rolling Stones
- All Right Now chords by Free
- Don’t Stop Believin’ chords by Journey
- Mr. Brightside chords by The Killers
- Sex On Fire chords by Kings Of Leon
Bryan Adams tunes
Best known for singing power ballads in blockbuster movies and Summer Of 69, Canadian Bryan Adams released his debut in 1980.
Tunes include (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, Run To You, The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You, and When You’re Gone.
Bryan Adams on the web
Pop & Rock
Whenever a tune doesn’t fit into a specific genre, it tends to end up here, in the Pop & Rock section.
Learn tunes from Tom Petty, Eagles, Toto, Oasis, Elvis, Clapton, John Mayer, Kings Of Leon, R.E.M., Radiohead, Bruno Mars, and more.
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Summer Of ’69 chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
