A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done by Sonny & Cher

Overview

Key: C minor · Chords used: 9 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Verse → Interlude → Verse → Bridge → Interlude → Verse → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). This page shows that transcription as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

Intro

• Cm
  i

Verse 1

• Cm – G (×2)
  i – V
• Cm
  i

Interlude 1

• C♯m – Cm
  #i – i

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge

• A♭ – B♭ – Cm – G7sus4 – G7 – Cm – A♭ – B♭ – Cm – Cm/B♭ – F6 – G7sus4 – G7
  bVI – bVII – i – V7sus4 – V7 – i – bVI – bVII – i – i (bass B♭) – IV6 – V7sus4 – V7

Interlude 2

• Cm – C♯m – Cm
  i – #i – i

Verse 3

• Cm – G7 – Cm – G7sus4 – G7
  i – V7 – i – V7sus4 – V7

Outro

• Cm – G7 (×2)
  i – V7
• Cm
  i

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• F6 (IV6) is borrowed from the parallel key, C major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1147, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.