I Can't Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt

Overview

Key: B♭ major · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 7

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Interlude → Verse → Chorus → Outro

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.

Section by section

Intro

• E♭maj9 – Gm7 – E♭maj9 – B♭/D – Gm7 – Gmaj9 – E♭maj9 – Gm7 – E♭maj9 – B♭/D – Cm11
  IVmaj9 – vi7 – IVmaj9 – I⁶ – vi7 – VImaj9 – IVmaj9 – vi7 – IVmaj9 – I⁶ – ii11

Verse 1

• E♭maj9 – Gm7 – E♭maj9 – B♭/D – Gm7 – Cm (×2)
  IVmaj9 – vi7 – IVmaj9 – I⁶ – vi7 – ii
• B♭/F – F – B♭/D
  I⁶₄ – V – I⁶

Chorus 1

• E♭maj9 – B♭ (×2)
  IVmaj9 – I
• B♭/D – E♭maj9
  I⁶ – IVmaj9
• Gm7 – E♭maj9 – F/A (×2)
  vi7 – IVmaj9 – V⁶
• Gm7 – Cm – F – E♭maj9 – B♭ – E♭maj9
  vi7 – ii – V – IVmaj9 – I – IVmaj9

Interlude

• E♭maj9 – Gm7 – E♭maj9 – B♭/D – Cm11
  IVmaj9 – vi7 – IVmaj9 – I⁶ – ii11

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• E♭maj9 – Gm7 – E♭maj9 – B♭/D – Gm7 – Cm – E♭maj9 – Gm7 – E♭maj9 – B♭/D – Cm11 (×2)
  IVmaj9 – vi7 – IVmaj9 – I⁶ – vi7 – ii – IVmaj9 – vi7 – IVmaj9 – I⁶ – ii11
• E♭maj9 – Gm7 – E♭maj9 – B♭/D – Gm7 – Cm – E♭maj9 – Gm7 – E♭maj9 – B♭/D – E♭maj9 – A♭maj9
  IVmaj9 – vi7 – IVmaj9 – I⁶ – vi7 – ii – IVmaj9 – vi7 – IVmaj9 – I⁶ – IVmaj9 – bVIImaj9

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
E♭maj9	IVmaj9	In the key	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Interlude, Outro
Gm7	vi7	In the key	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Interlude, Outro
B♭/D	I⁶	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Interlude, Outro
Gmaj9	VImaj9	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro
Cm11	ii11	In the key	Intro, Interlude, Outro
Cm	ii	In the key	Verse, Chorus, Outro
B♭/F	I⁶₄	Home chord (tonic)	Verse
F	V	In the key	Verse, Chorus
B♭	I	Home chord (tonic)	Chorus
F/A	V⁶	In the key	Chorus
A♭maj9	bVIImaj9	Outside the key (chromatic)	Outro

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 99% 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.