Hurts to Be in Love by Gino Vannelli

Overview

Key: E minor · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 10

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Transition → Verse → Chorus → 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

• Cmaj7 – D6 (×4)
  bVImaj7 – bVII6

Verse 1

• D/E – Em (×3)
  bVII (bass E) – i
• D/E – E
  bVII (bass E) – I

Chorus 1

• Cmaj7 – D6 (×2)
  bVImaj7 – bVII6
• Cmaj7 – B7
  bVImaj7 – V7

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge

• Em – D/C – C – Dsus4 – D/C – B7sus4 – Bm7 – Em – D/C – C – Am – B7sus4
  i – bVII (bass C) – bVI – bVIIsus4 – bVII (bass C) – V7sus4 – v7 – i – bVII (bass C) – bVI – iv – V7sus4

Transition

• Cmaj7 – D6 (×2)
  bVImaj7 – bVII6

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• Cmaj7 – D6 (×8)
  bVImaj7 – bVII6

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E (I) is borrowed from the parallel key, E major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0062, 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.