Happy Anniversary by Little River Band

Overview

Key: E minor · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 11

Form: Chorus → Interlude → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Solo → Chorus → Verse → 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

Chorus 1

• Em7 – A13 (×4)
  i7 – IV13

Interlude

• Em7 – A13 (×4)
  i7 – IV13

Verse 1

• Em7 – A13 (×8)
  i7 – IV13

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge

• Dmaj7 – Gmaj7 – Dmaj7 – Em7/G – Dmaj7 – Gmaj7 – Dmaj7 – C♯m7 – F♯7 – Bm7 – E7 – Em/A – A7
  bVIImaj7 – bIIImaj7 – bVIImaj7 – i⁶₅ – bVIImaj7 – bIIImaj7 – bVIImaj7 – vi7 – II7 – v7 – I7 – i (bass A) – IV7

Solo

• Em7 – A13 (×8)
  i7 – IV13

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 5

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• Em7 – A13 (×10)
  i7 – IV13

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• C♯m7 (vi7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E major.
• F♯7 acts as V/v: it resolves to Bm7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1174, 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.