Black Balloon by Goo Goo Dolls

Overview

Key: B♭ minor · Chords used: 13 · Sections: 14

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)

• B♭m9
  i9

Part 2 (0:18)

• D♭5 – G♭sus2 (×4)
  bIII5 – bVIsus2

Part 3 (0:38)

• D♭5 – G♭sus2 – B♭m – A♭add11/C – D♭5 – G♭sus2/D♭ – E♭m11 – G♭sus2 – D♭5 – G♭sus2
  bIII5 – bVIsus2 – i – bVIIadd11 (bass C) – bIII5 – bVIsus2 (bass D♭) – iv11 – bVIsus2 – bIII5 – bVIsus2

Part 4 (0:57)

Same chords as Part 2 (0:18).

Part 5 (1:16)

• B♭m – A♭add11/C – D♭5 – D♭/F – G♭sus2 – A♭sus4 – G♭sus2 – B♭m7 – A♭sus4 – G♭sus2 – D♭ – B♭m7 – A♭sus4
  i – bVIIadd11 (bass C) – bIII5 – bIII⁶ – bVIsus2 – bVIIsus4 – bVIsus2 – i7 – bVIIsus4 – bVIsus2 – bIII – i7 – bVIIsus4

Part 6 (1:33)

• G♭sus2 – D♭ – B♭m7 – A♭sus4 – G♭sus2 – D♭ – G♭sus2 – A♭sus4
  bVIsus2 – bIII – i7 – bVIIsus4 – bVIsus2 – bIII – bVIsus2 – bVIIsus4
• D♭5 – G♭sus2 (×2)
  bIII5 – bVIsus2

Part 7 (1:51)

• D♭5 – G♭sus2 (×3)
  bIII5 – bVIsus2
• B♭m – A♭add11/C – D♭ – D♭/F
  i – bVIIadd11 (bass C) – bIII – bIII⁶

Part 8 (2:09)

• G♭sus2 – A♭sus4 – G♭sus2
  bVIsus2 – bVIIsus4 – bVIsus2
• B♭m7 – A♭sus4 – G♭sus2 – D♭ (×2)
  i7 – bVIIsus4 – bVIsus2 – bIII
• B♭m7 – A♭sus4 – G♭sus2
  i7 – bVIIsus4 – bVIsus2

Part 9 (2:26)

• D♭ – G♭sus2
  bIII – bVIsus2
• A♭sus4 – D♭maj7/F – G♭sus2 – B♭m7 (×2)
  bVIIsus4 – bIIImaj⁶₅ – bVIsus2 – i7

Part 10 (2:44)

• A♭sus4 – G♭sus2 – D♭maj7/F – E♭m11 – G♭ – D♭/F – G♭sus2 – A♭sus4
  bVIIsus4 – bVIsus2 – bIIImaj⁶₅ – iv11 – bVI – bIII⁶ – bVIsus2 – bVIIsus4

Part 11 (3:03)

• B♭m7 – A♭sus4 – G♭sus2 – D♭ (×3)
  i7 – bVIIsus4 – bVIsus2 – bIII
• G♭sus2 – A♭sus4 – B♭m7
  bVIsus2 – bVIIsus4 – i7

Part 12 (3:21)

• A♭sus4 – G♭sus2 – D♭ – B♭m7 (×2)
  bVIIsus4 – bVIsus2 – bIII – i7
• A♭sus4 – G♭sus2 – D♭ – G♭sus2 – A♭sus4 – D♭maj7/F – E♭m11
  bVIIsus4 – bVIsus2 – bIII – bVIsus2 – bVIIsus4 – bIIImaj⁶₅ – iv11

Part 13 (3:39)

• G♭sus2 – D♭ – B♭m9
  bVIsus2 – bIII – i9

Part 14 (3:57)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Dizzy Up The Girl), 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 (Dizzy Up The Girl), 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.