Anytime You Need a Friend by Mariah Carey

Overview

Key: A minor · Chords used: 23 · Sections: 9

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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

Part 1 (0:00)

• Am/C – Bm7(no5) – E7/G♯ – Am (×4)
  i⁶ – ii7(no5) – V⁶₅ – i

Part 2 (0:29)

• Am/C – Bm7(no5) – G7sus4 – Cmaj7 – F♯7♭5 – Fmaj7 – Bm7(no5) – E7 – Am
  i⁶ – ii7(no5) – bVII7sus4 – bIIImaj7 – VI7♭5 – bVImaj7 – ii7(no5) – V7 – i
• G – Dm7 – C/E (×2)
  bVII – iv7 – bIII⁶

Part 3 (0:55)

• G – Dm7 – C/E – G – Dm7 – Am/E – E7 – Am – Am/C – Bm7(no5) – E7/G♯ – Am – Am/C
  bVII – iv7 – bIII⁶ – bVII – iv7 – i⁶₄ – V7 – i – i⁶ – ii7(no5) – V⁶₅ – i – i⁶

Part 4 (1:23)

• Bm7(no5) – E7/G♯ – Am – Am/C – Bm7(no5) – G7sus4 – Cmaj7 – F♯7♭5 – Fmaj7 – Bm7(no5) – E7 – Am – G – Dm7 – C/E – G
  ii7(no5) – V⁶₅ – i – i⁶ – ii7(no5) – bVII7sus4 – bIIImaj7 – VI7♭5 – bVImaj7 – ii7(no5) – V7 – i – bVII – iv7 – bIII⁶ – bVII

Part 5 (1:49)

• Dm7 – C/E – G (×2)
  iv7 – bIII⁶ – bVII
• Dm7 – Am/E – E7 – Am – Cdim7
  iv7 – i⁶₄ – V7 – i – biii°7

Part 6 (2:18)

• G/B – Em7♭5/B♭ – F/A – Dm7♭5/A♭ – C/G – F♯m7♭5 – Fmaj7 – F6 – Esus4 – E – G
  bVII⁶ – vø⁴₃ – bVI⁶ – ivø⁴₃ – bIII⁶₄ – viø7 – bVImaj7 – bVI6 – Vsus4 – V – bVII

Part 7 (2:46)

• Dm7 – C/E – G (×4)
  iv7 – bIII⁶ – bVII

Part 8 (3:14)

Same chords as Part 7 (2:46).

Part 9 (3:43)

• Dm7 – C/E – G (×4)
  iv7 – bIII⁶ – bVII
• Dm7
  iv7

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Music Box), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Music Box), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• 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.