I Want It That Way by Backstreet Boys

Overview

Key: F♯ minor · Chords used: 13 · Sections: 11

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 (0:00)

• F♯m – D – A – F♯m
  i – bVI – bIII – i

Part 2 (0:07)

• D – A – F♯m (×4)
  bVI – bIII – i

Part 3 (0:27)

• E7
  bVII7
• A – F♯m – D (×3)
  bIII – i – bVI
• A – F♯m
  bIII – i

Part 4 (0:46)

• E7 – A
  bVII7 – bIII
• D – E – F♯m (×2)
  bVI – bVII – i
• D – E – A – F♯m
  bVI – bVII – bIII – i

Part 5 (1:05)

Same chords as Part 3 (0:27).

Part 6 (1:25)

• E7 – A
  bVII7 – bIII
• D – E – F♯m (×3)
  bVI – bVII – i

Part 7 (1:44)

• C♯sus4 – C♯ – F♯m – A – D – Bm – E – F♯m – A – D
  Vsus4 – V – i – bIII – bVI – iv – bVII – i – bIII – bVI

Part 8 (2:04)

• Esus4 – E
  bVIIsus4 – bVII
• D – E – F♯m (×2)
  bVI – bVII – i
• D – E – A – F♯m
  bVI – bVII – bIII – i

Part 9 (2:23)

• Esus4
  bVIIsus4
• E – F♯ – G♯m (×2)
  bVII – I – ii
• E – F♯ – B – G♯m
  bVII – I – IV – ii

Part 10 (2:42)

• F♯ – B
  I – IV
• E – F♯ – G♯m (×2)
  bVII – I – ii
• E – F♯ – B – G♯m
  bVII – I – IV – ii

Part 11 (3:02)

• F♯7 – B
  I7 – IV
• E – F♯ – G♯m (×2)
  bVII – I – ii
• E – F♯
  bVII – I
• B – G♯m – F♯7 (×2)
  IV – ii – I7
• B
  IV

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• F♯ (I) is borrowed from the parallel key, F♯ major.
• G♯m (ii) is borrowed from the parallel key, F♯ major.
• B (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, F♯ major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Millennium), 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 (Millennium), 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.