I Never Loved a Man by Aretha Franklin

Overview

Key: F major · Chords used: 4 · Sections: 7

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

• F7 – B♭ (×4)
  I7 – IV

Verse 1

• F7 – B♭ (×6)
  I7 – IV
• C7
  V7
• F7 – B♭ (×6)
  I7 – IV
• C7
  V7

Chorus 1

• C7
  V7
• F7 – B♭ (×3)
  I7 – IV
• C7
  V7
• F7 – B♭ (×2)
  I7 – IV

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge

• B♭ – F7 – C7 – B♭ – A♭
  IV – I7 – V7 – IV – bIII
• F7 – B♭ (×2)
  I7 – IV

Outro

• F7 – B♭ (×8)
  I7 – IV

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A♭ (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• F7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to B♭.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0403, 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.