California Nights by Lesley Gore

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 14 · Sections: 7

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Interlude → Chorus

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

• Fm – G♭/D♭ – E – C
  iv – bV⁶₄ – III – I

Verse 1

• F/C – Cmaj7 – F/C – Em7 – Am7 (×2)
  IV⁶₄ – Imaj7 – IV⁶₄ – iii7 – vi7
• Em7 – Am7 – Dm7 – G
  iii7 – vi7 – ii7 – V
• Csus4 – C (×2)
  Isus4 – I
• Fm/C – C (×2)
  iv⁶₄ – I

Chorus 1

• Fm – G♭ – E – C (×2)
  iv – bV – III – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Interlude

• G7
  V7

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Fm (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• Fm/C (iv⁶₄) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0813, 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.