Endless Love by Lionel Richie

Overview

Key: B♭ major · Chords used: 16 · Sections: 14

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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

Part 1 (0:00)

• B♭
  I

Part 2 (0:03)

• E♭ – Cm7 – F5 – B♭
  IV – ii7 – V5 – I

Part 3 (0:23)

• E♭ – Cm7 – F – B♭ – F/A – E♭maj7 – Cm11/F – F – B♭ – F/A
  IV – ii7 – V – I – V⁶ – IVmaj7 – ii11 (bass F) – V – I – V⁶

Part 4 (0:44)

• Gm – Dm/F – E♭maj7 – Cm11/F – F – B♭ – B♭9 – E♭maj7 – Cm11/F – F – B♭ – F/A
  vi – iii⁶ – IVmaj7 – ii11 (bass F) – V – I – I9 – IVmaj7 – ii11 (bass F) – V – I – V⁶

Part 5 (1:04)

• Gm – F6 – E♭maj7 – Dm7 – Cm7 – Cm11/F – B♭
  vi – V6 – IVmaj7 – iii7 – ii7 – ii11 (bass F) – I

Part 6 (1:25)

• E♭ – Cm11/F – F7 – B♭
  IV – ii11 (bass F) – V7 – I

Part 7 (1:46)

• E♭ – Cm11/F – F7 – B♭ – F/A – E♭maj7 – Cm11/F – F – B♭ – F/A
  IV – ii11 (bass F) – V7 – I – V⁶ – IVmaj7 – ii11 (bass F) – V – I – V⁶

Part 8 (2:06)

Same chords as Part 4 (0:44).

Part 9 (2:27)

• Gm – F6 – E♭maj7 – Dm7 – Cm7 – Cm11/F – B♭ – E♭
  vi – V6 – IVmaj7 – iii7 – ii7 – ii11 (bass F) – I – IV

Part 10 (2:47)

• Cm11/F – F – B♭ – E♭ – Cm11/F – B♭
  ii11 (bass F) – V – I – IV – ii11 (bass F) – I

Part 11 (3:08)

• E♭maj7 – Cm11/F – F – B♭ – F/A – Gm7 – F/A – E♭maj7 – Cm11/F – F – B♭
  IVmaj7 – ii11 (bass F) – V – I – V⁶ – vi7 – V⁶ – IVmaj7 – ii11 (bass F) – V – I

Part 12 (3:29)

• B♭9 – E♭maj7 – Cm11/F – F – B♭ – F/A – Gm – Dm/F – E♭maj7 – Dm7 – E♭maj7
  I9 – IVmaj7 – ii11 (bass F) – V – I – V⁶ – vi – iii⁶ – IVmaj7 – iii7 – IVmaj7

Part 13 (3:49)

• Dm7 – E♭maj7 – Dm7 – Cm7 – Cm11/F – B♭ – E♭
  iii7 – IVmaj7 – iii7 – ii7 – ii11 (bass F) – I – IV

Part 14 (4:11)

• Cm11/F – F – B♭6 – B♭
  ii11 (bass F) – V – I6 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭9 acts as V/IV: it resolves to E♭maj7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Back To Front), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Back To Front), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• 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.