A Trick of the Night by Bananarama

Overview

Key: C minor · Chords used: 16 · Sections: 13

Form: Intro → Pre-Verse → Verse → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Pre-Verse → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus ×2 → Pre-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

• C5 – C7sus4 – A♭/C – Fm – Gm7/F
  I5 – I7sus4 – bVI⁶ – iv – v⁴₂

Pre-Verse 1

• Cm – A♭ – E♭/G – F
  i – bVI – bIII⁶ – IV

Verse 1

• Cm – A♭ – E♭/G – F
  i – bVI – bIII⁶ – IV

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Pre-Chorus 1

• A♭ – Gm – F – E♭ – A♭ – E♭/G – F – A♭/B♭ – B♭
  bVI – v – IV – bIII – bVI – bIII⁶ – IV – bVI (bass B♭) – bVII

Chorus 1

• C – Gm7 – Fm7 – A♭/B♭ – B♭ (×2)
  I – v7 – iv7 – bVI (bass B♭) – bVII

Pre-Verse 2

Same chords as Pre-Verse 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Pre-Chorus 2

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Pre-Verse 3

Same chords as Pre-Verse 1.

Outro

• Cm – Gm7 – Fm7 – A♭/B♭ – B♭ (×6)
  i – v7 – iv7 – bVI (bass B♭) – bVII

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• F (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, C major.
• C (I) 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 0099, 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.