I Heard It Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye

Overview

Key: E♭ minor · Chords used: 4 · Sections: 10

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Interlude → 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♭m
  i

Verse 1

• E♭m – B♭7 – A♭7 (×2)
  i – V7 – IV7
• Cm – A♭7 – E♭m – A♭7
  vi – IV7 – i – IV7

Chorus 1

• E♭m – A♭7 (×4)
  i – IV7

Interlude 1

• E♭m
  i

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Interlude 2

Same chords as Interlude 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• E♭m
  i

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
E♭m	i	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Interlude, Outro
B♭7	V7	In the key	Verse
A♭7	IV7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse, Chorus
Cm	vi	Borrowed from E♭ major	Verse

Harmonic highlights

• Cm (vi) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ major.

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 98% 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.