Don't Say You Love Me by Billy Squier

Overview

Key: F♯ major · Chords used: 5 · Sections: 7

Form: Intro → Verse → Interlude → Verse → Solo → Bridge → Outro

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

• F♯ – B (×4)
  I – IV

Verse 1

• F♯ – B (×4)
  I – IV
• E
  bVII
• B – F♯ (×6)
  IV – I
• B – E – B – F♯ – B – F♯ (×2)
  IV – bVII – IV – I – IV – I

Interlude

• F♯ – B (×2)
  I – IV

Verse 2

• F♯ – B – F♯ – B – F♯ – B – F♯ – B – E – B – F♯ – B (×2)
  I – IV – I – IV – I – IV – I – IV – bVII – IV – I – IV
• F♯ – B – E
  I – IV – bVII
• B – F♯ (×2)
  IV – I

Solo

• F♯ – B (×8)
  I – IV
• E – B – F♯ – B – F♯ – B (×2)
  bVII – IV – I – IV – I – IV
• F♯ – B (×2)
  I – IV

Bridge

• G♯m – B – E – D♯ – E – B (×3)
  ii – IV – bVII – VI – bVII – IV

Outro

• F♯ – B (×20)
  I – IV
• E – B
  bVII – IV

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, F♯ minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0452, 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.