Hotel California by Eagles

Overview

Key: B minor · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 15

Form: Verse → Verse ×3 → Chorus → Verse ×2 → Chorus → Verse ×7

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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

• Chorus 1 moves to D major.
• Verse 5 moves to B minor.
• Chorus 2 moves to D major.
• Verse 7 moves to B minor.

Section by section

Verse 1

• Bm – F♯ – A – E – G – D – Em – F♯
  i – V – bVII – IV – bVI – bIII – iv – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 1

• G – D – F♯ – Bm – G – D – Em – F♯
  IV – I – III – vi – IV – I – ii – III

Verse 5

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 6

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 7

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 8

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 9

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 10

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 11

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 12

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 13

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
Bm	i	Home chord (tonic)	Verse
F♯	V	In the key	Verse
A	bVII	In the key	Verse
E	IV	Borrowed from B major	Verse
G	bVI	In the key	Verse
D	bIII	In the key	Verse
Em	iv	In the key	Verse
G	IV (in D major)	In the key	Chorus
D	I (in D major)	Home chord (tonic)	Chorus
F♯	III (in D major)	Secondary dominant (V/vi)	Chorus
Bm	vi (in D major)	In the key	Chorus
Em	ii (in D major)	In the key	Chorus

Harmonic highlights

• E (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, B major.
• F♯ acts as V/vi: it resolves to Bm.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 100% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.