Baby Can I Hold You by Tracy Chapman

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 10 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Chorus → Transition → Verse → Chorus ×2 → 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

• D – A/D – D – A7sus4 – A7 (×2)
  I – V (bass D) – I – V7sus4 – V7

Verse 1

• D – A/D – D – A7sus4 – A7 – Em – A7sus4 – A7 – D – A/D – D – A7sus4 – A7 – Em – Em/G – A – Asus4 – A
  I – V (bass D) – I – V7sus4 – V7 – ii – V7sus4 – V7 – I – V (bass D) – I – V7sus4 – V7 – ii – ii⁶ – V – Vsus4 – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 1

• D – Em – G (×2)
  I – ii – IV
• Bm – A
  vi – V

Transition

• D – Em – G – A
  I – ii – IV – V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• D – Em – G – A (×2)
  I – ii – IV – V
• D
  I

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0747, 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.