Don't Treat Me Bad by FireHouse

Overview

Key: A♭ major · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 12

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Transition → Verse → Chorus → Transition → Solo → Transition → Chorus ×2 → 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

• A♭ – E♭/A♭ – D♭add9/A♭ – E♭/A♭ (×2)
  I – V (bass A♭) – IVadd9 (bass A♭) – V (bass A♭)

Verse 1

• A♭ – E♭/A♭ – D♭add9/A♭ – E♭/A♭ – Fm7 – Cm – D♭ – E♭ (×2)
  I – V (bass A♭) – IVadd9 (bass A♭) – V (bass A♭) – vi7 – iii – IV – V
• D♭ – E♭ – Cm – Fm7 – E♭ (×3)
  IV – V – iii – vi7 – V
• B♭m – E♭
  ii – V

Chorus 1

• A♭ – B♭m – D♭ – E♭ (×3)
  I – ii – IV – V
• A♭ – B♭m – E♭
  I – ii – V

Transition 1

• A♭ – D♭ – B♭m – E♭ (×2)
  I – IV – ii – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Transition 2

Same chords as Transition 1.

Solo

• A♭ – E♭/A♭ – D♭add9/A♭ – E♭/A♭
  I – V (bass A♭) – IVadd9 (bass A♭) – V (bass A♭)
• Fm7 – Cm – D♭ – E♭ (×2)
  vi7 – iii – IV – V
• B♭m – E♭
  ii – V

Transition 3

• A♭ – B♭m – D♭ – E♭ (×2)
  I – ii – IV – V

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• A♭ – D♭ – B♭m – E♭ (×6)
  I – IV – ii – V
• A♭
  I
• D♭ – E♭ (×2)
  IV – V
• A♭
  I

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0258, 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.