Amor by Ben E. King

Overview

Key: B♭ major · Chords used: 14 · Sections: 7

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Instrumental → 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

• B♭6
  I6

Verse 1

• B♭6 – F/C – Cm – Fadd9/C – F – B♭6 – A7
  I6 – V⁶₄ – ii – Vadd9 (bass C) – V – I6 – VII7

Chorus

• Dm – A7 – Dm – F – F♯dim – Gm7 – C7 – F7
  iii – VII7 – iii – V – #v° – vi7 – II7 – V7

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Instrumental

• Dm – A7 – Dm – F – F♯dim – Gm7 – C7 – F7
  iii – VII7 – iii – V – #v° – vi7 – II7 – V7

Verse 3

• B♭6 – F/C – Cm – Cmmaj7 – Cm7 – Fadd9/C – F
  I6 – V⁶₄ – ii – iimaj7 – ii7 – Vadd9 (bass C) – V

Outro

• B♭7♯11
  I7#11

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A7 acts as V/iii: it resolves to Dm.
• C7 acts as V/V: it resolves to F7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0583, 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.