Cathy's Clown by The Everly Brothers

Overview

Key: G major · Chords used: 4 · Sections: 6

Form: Intro → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Bridge → Verse

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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

• G – D (×3)
  I – V
• G
  I

Verse 1

• G – D (×8)
  I – V
• Em – C
  vi – IV
• D – G (×4)
  V – I

Bridge 1

• G – C (×4)
  I – IV
• Em – C – D – G – C – G
  vi – IV – V – I – IV – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Verse 3

• G – D (×8)
  I – V
• Em – C
  vi – IV
• D – G (×6)
  V – I
• D
  V

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
G	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Bridge
D	V	In the key	Intro, Verse, Bridge
Em	vi	In the key	Verse, Bridge
C	IV	In the key	Verse, Bridge

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: 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.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 99% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.