Crying by Roy Orbison

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 7

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Tag → Verse → Chorus → Tag

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

• D
  I

Verse 1

• D – Daug – G – Gm – D – A
  I – I+ – IV – iv – I – V

Chorus 1

• D – F♯m (×2)
  I – iii
• G – A (×2)
  IV – V
• D – Daug – G – Gm
  I – I+ – IV – iv

Tag 1

• D – A – D
  I – V – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Tag 2

• D – Bm – G
  I – vi – IV
• A – D (×2)
  V – I
• G – D
  IV – I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
D	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Tag
Daug	I+	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse, Chorus
G	IV	In the key	Verse, Chorus, Tag
Gm	iv	Borrowed from D minor	Verse, Chorus
A	V	In the key	Verse, Chorus, Tag
F♯m	iii	In the key	Chorus
Bm	vi	In the key	Tag

Harmonic highlights

• Gm (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.

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 94% 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.