By All Means Necessary by Robbie Williams

Overview

Key: E minor · Chords used: 13 · Sections: 14

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Robbie Williams chord annotations (Di Giorgi et al., Politecnico di Milano, 2013). 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)

• Em – D – A – Em – D
  i – bVII – IV – i – bVII

Part 2 (0:08)

• A – Em – D (×2)
  IV – i – bVII
• A – E – C
  IV – I – bVI

Part 3 (0:29)

• D – E – C – D – A – Am – C♯m
  bVII – I – bVI – bVII – IV – iv – vi

Part 4 (0:51)

• F♯ – Em – Bm – G – Cmaj7 – B – Am – G – D – G
  II – i – v – bIII – bVImaj7 – V – iv – bIII – bVII – bIII

Part 5 (1:12)

• B
  V
• Em – D – A (×2)
  i – bVII – IV
• E – C
  I – bVI

Part 6 (1:33)

Same chords as Part 3 (0:29).

Part 7 (1:55)

• F♯ – Em – Bm – G – C – B – Am – G – D – G
  II – i – v – bIII – bVI – V – iv – bIII – bVII – bIII

Part 8 (2:16)

• B
  V
• Em – A (×2)
  i – IV
• Dm – G – Dm
  bvii – bIII – bvii

Part 9 (2:37)

• B
  V
• Em – E – A (×2)
  i – I – IV
• Dm – G
  bvii – bIII

Part 10 (2:56)

• Dm – B – Em – Bm – G – C – B – Am – G – D
  bvii – V – i – v – bIII – bVI – V – iv – bIII – bVII

Part 11 (3:17)

• G – B – Em – A – C – B – Em – A
  bIII – V – i – IV – bVI – V – i – IV

Part 12 (3:39)

• C – B – Em – A (×2)
  bVI – V – i – IV

Part 13 (4:00)

Same chords as Part 12 (3:39).

Part 14 (4:21)

Same chords as Part 12 (3:39).

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, E major.
• E (I) is borrowed from the parallel key, E major.
• C♯m (vi) is borrowed from the parallel key, E major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Robbie Williams chord annotations (Di Giorgi et al., Politecnico di Milano, 2013). Chord annotation of the original recording (Sing When You're Winning, 2000), 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 (Sing When You're Winning, 2000), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• 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.