Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man by Jerome Kern

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 21 · Sections: 4

Form: A Section → B Section → C Section → A Section

Where these chords come from: a lead sheet of this public-domain song, contributed by a musician to the Wikifonia archive and preserved in the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). It describes the song as written, not any particular recording. This page shows that lead sheet 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

A Section 1

• E♭maj7 – Cm7 – Fm7 – B♭7 – E♭maj7 – B♭m9 – E♭7♭9 – A♭maj7 – D♭9 – Gm7 – Cm7 – B7 – B♭aug7 – B♭7♭9 – E♭6 – Cm7 – Fm7 – B♭aug7
  Imaj7 – vi7 – ii7 – V7 – Imaj7 – v9 – I7b9 – IVmaj7 – bVII9 – iii7 – vi7 – #V7 – V+7 – V7b9 – I6 – vi7 – ii7 – V+7

B Section

• E♭maj7 – Cm7 – Fm7 – B♭7 – E♭maj7 – B♭m9 – E♭7♭9 – A♭6 – D♭9 – Gm7 – Cm7 – B7 – B♭aug7 – B♭7 – E♭6 – B♭m7 – E♭7♭9
  Imaj7 – vi7 – ii7 – V7 – Imaj7 – v9 – I7b9 – IV6 – bVII9 – iii7 – vi7 – #V7 – V+7 – V7 – I6 – v7 – I7b9

C Section

• A♭6 – Adim7 – E♭maj7 – C7 – F9 – F♯dim7 – Gm7 – C7♭9 – Fm7 – F9 – Fm7/B♭ – B♭7
  IV6 – #iv°7 – Imaj7 – VI7 – II9 – #ii°7 – iii7 – VI7b9 – ii7 – II9 – ii7 (bass B♭) – V7

A Section 2

• E♭maj7 – Cm7 – Fm7 – B♭7 – E♭maj7 – B♭m9 – E♭7♭9 – A♭maj7 – D♭9 – Gm7 – Cm7 – B7 – B♭aug7 – B♭7♭9 – E♭6 – Cm7 – Fm7 – B♭7
  Imaj7 – vi7 – ii7 – V7 – Imaj7 – v9 – I7b9 – IVmaj7 – bVII9 – iii7 – vi7 – #V7 – V+7 – V7b9 – I6 – vi7 – ii7 – V7

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D♭9 (bVII9) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• B♭aug7 (V+7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• B♭7♭9 (V7b9) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• B♭m7 (v7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• E♭7♭9 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭maj7.
• C7♭9 acts as V/ii: it resolves to Fm7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). Community-contributed lead sheet (chord symbols over the melody) from the Wikifonia archive, MIT licence. Title and songwriter credit as written on the sheet.
• Section names: detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases; a phrase that comes back keeps its letter). Lead sheets rarely print section names.
• Not verified: only one lead sheet of this song is available, so it hasn't been cross-checked.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.