I Drove All Night by Cyndi Lauper

Overview

Key: A♭ major · Chords used: 5 · Sections: 14

Form: Intro → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Transition → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Interlude → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Interlude → Pre-Chorus → Interlude

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

• E♭ – D♭ – A♭
  V – IV – I

Verse 1

• E♭ – D♭ (×2)
  V – IV
• Fm – A♭ – D♭ – E♭
  vi – I – IV – V

Pre-Chorus 1

• D♭ – E♭ – D♭ – A♭
  IV – V – IV – I

Chorus 1

• Cm – D♭ – A♭ – Fm – E♭ (×2)
  iii – IV – I – vi – V
• D♭
  IV

Transition

• A♭
  I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Pre-Chorus 2

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Interlude 1

• Fm – D♭ – A♭ – Cm – D♭ – E♭ (×2)
  vi – IV – I – iii – IV – V

Pre-Chorus 3

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Interlude 2

• A♭ – Fm – E♭
  I – vi – V

Pre-Chorus 4

• D♭ – E♭ – D♭
  IV – V – IV

Interlude 3

Same chords as Interlude 1.

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1011, 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.