I Honestly Love You by Olivia Newton-John

Overview

Key: B♭ major · Chords used: 33 · Sections: 14

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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

Part 1 (0:12)

• B♭
  I

Part 2 (0:14)

• Fadd11/B♭ – A♭add9/B♭ – E♭ – B♭add11/E♭ – E♭ – B♭/F
  Vadd11 (bass B♭) – bVIIadd9 (bass B♭) – IV – Iadd11 (bass E♭) – IV – I⁶₄

Part 3 (0:29)

• C9 – E♭ – B♭/D – Cm7 – B♭ – Fsus4 – F7 – B♭
  II9 – IV – I⁶ – ii7 – I – Vsus4 – V7 – I

Part 4 (0:45)

• Fadd11/B♭ – E♭/B♭ – B♭ (×2)
  Vadd11 (bass B♭) – IV⁶₄ – I

Part 5 (1:02)

• Fadd11/B♭ – A♭add9/B♭ – E♭ – B♭add11/E♭
  Vadd11 (bass B♭) – bVIIadd9 (bass B♭) – IV – Iadd11 (bass E♭)

Part 6 (1:18)

• C9 – E♭ – B♭/D – Cm7 – B♭/D – Cm7/E♭ – Fsus4 – F7
  II9 – IV – I⁶ – ii7 – I⁶ – ii⁶₅ – Vsus4 – V7

Part 7 (1:33)

• B♭ – Fadd11/B♭ – E♭/B♭ – B♭ – Fadd11/B♭ – A♭add9/B♭ – B♭
  I – Vadd11 (bass B♭) – IV⁶₄ – I – Vadd11 (bass B♭) – bVIIadd9 (bass B♭) – I

Part 8 (1:49)

• E♭ – F7/E♭ – B♭/D – Gm7 – Cm7 – F – B♭ – Dsus4/A – D7
  IV – V⁴₂ – I⁶ – vi7 – ii7 – V – I – IIIsus4 (bass A) – III7

Part 9 (2:06)

• Gm7 – Gm7/F – E♭ – B♭/D – Cm7 – Cm11/F
  vi7 – vi⁴₂ – IV – I⁶ – ii7 – ii11 (bass F)

Part 10 (2:22)

• B♭ – Fadd11/B♭ – E♭/B♭ – E♭m/B♭
  I – Vadd11 (bass B♭) – IV⁶₄ – iv⁶₄

Part 11 (2:38)

• B♭ – F♯ – B – F♯add11/B – Aadd9/B
  I – #V – #I – #Vadd11 (bass B) – VIIadd9 (bass B)

Part 12 (2:54)

• E – B/F♯ – C♯7 – E – B/D♯
  #IV – #I⁶₄ – #II7 – #IV – #I⁶

Part 13 (3:11)

• C♯m7 – B – G♯m – F♯sus4 – F♯ – B – F♯add11/B – E/B – B
  #ii7 – #I – #vi – #Vsus4 – #V – #I – #Vadd11 (bass B) – #IV⁶₄ – #I

Part 14 (3:26)

• F♯add11/B – E/B – B (×2)
  #Vadd11 (bass B) – #IV⁶₄ – #I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A♭add9/B♭ (bVIIadd9 (bass B♭)) is borrowed from the parallel key, B♭ minor.
• E♭m/B♭ (iv⁶₄) is borrowed from the parallel key, B♭ minor.
• F♯ (#V) is borrowed from the parallel key, B♭ minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Olivia), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Olivia), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• 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.