Be My Baby by The Ronettes

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 9 · Sections: 11

Form: Intro → Verse → Bridge → Chorus → Verse → Bridge → Chorus → Solo → Chorus ×3

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

• E
  I

Verse 1

• E – F♯m – B (×2)
  I – ii – V

Bridge 1

• G♯7 – C♯7 – F♯7 – B
  III7 – VI7 – II7 – V

Chorus 1

• E – C♯m – A – B7
  I – vi – IV – V7

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Solo

• E – F♯m – B (×2)
  I – ii – V

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 5

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
E	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Solo
F♯m	ii	In the key	Verse, Solo
B	V	In the key	Verse, Bridge, Solo
G♯7	III7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Bridge
C♯7	VI7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Bridge
F♯7	II7	Secondary dominant (V/V)	Bridge
C♯m	vi	In the key	Chorus
A	IV	In the key	Chorus
B7	V7	In the key	Chorus

Harmonic highlights

• F♯7 acts as V/V: it resolves to B.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0120, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page. Independently transcribed; it matches this page's chords closely (similarity 100%).
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.