Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James

Overview

Key: A major · Chords used: 10 · Sections: 7

Form: Instrumental → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Verse → Verse

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.

Key changes

• Verse 3 moves to B♭ major.

Section by section

Instrumental

• Amaj9 – Bm7 (×3)
  Imaj9 – ii7
• D – A
  IV – I

Verse 1

• Amaj9 – Bm7 (×8)
  Imaj9 – ii7
• D – A
  IV – I

Verse 2

• Amaj9 – Bm7 (×8)
  Imaj9 – ii7
• D
  IV

Bridge

• A – G – D – A – G – Bm7 – Bm7/E
  I – bVII – IV – I – bVII – ii7 – ii7 (bass E)
• Amaj9 – Bm7 (×3)
  Imaj9 – ii7
• D – A
  IV – I

Verse 3

• B♭maj9 – Cm7 (×6)
  Imaj9 – ii7
• B♭maj9 – E♭/A♭ – Cm
  Imaj9 – IV (bass A♭) – ii

Verse 4

• B♭maj9 – Cm7 (×8)
  Imaj9 – ii7

Verse 5

• B♭maj9 – Cm7 (×4)
  Imaj9 – ii7

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• G (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0528, 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.