I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner

Overview

Key: E♭ minor · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 25

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)

• E♭m – D♭ – G♭ – C♭ – E♭m
  i – bVII – bIII – bVI – i

Part 2 (0:12)

• D♭ – G♭ – C♭ – E♭m
  bVII – bIII – bVI – i

Part 3 (0:24)

Same chords as Part 2 (0:12).

Part 4 (0:35)

• D♭6 – E♭m
  bVII6 – i

Part 5 (0:47)

Same chords as Part 2 (0:12).

Part 6 (0:59)

Same chords as Part 2 (0:12).

Part 7 (1:11)

• A♭m – D♭/A♭ – A♭m – A♭m7 (×2)
  iv – bVII⁶₄ – iv – iv7
• A♭m
  iv

Part 8 (1:24)

• D♭/A♭ – A♭m – C♭ – B♭m7 – A♭m7 – G♭ – C♭add9/D♭ – G♭
  bVII⁶₄ – iv – bVI – v7 – iv7 – bIII – bVIadd9 (bass D♭) – bIII

Part 9 (1:35)

• E♭m – D♭ – A♭m – E♭m – D♭ – G♭
  i – bVII – iv – i – bVII – bIII

Part 10 (1:47)

• E♭m – D♭ – A♭m – E♭m – D♭ – D♭7
  i – bVII – iv – i – bVII – bVII7

Part 11 (1:59)

• E♭m – D♭ – G♭
  i – bVII – bIII

Part 12 (2:11)

• C♭ – E♭m – D♭ – G♭
  bVI – i – bVII – bIII

Part 13 (2:23)

• C♭ – E♭m – A♭m7 – A♭m – D♭/A♭ – A♭m
  bVI – i – iv7 – iv – bVII⁶₄ – iv

Part 14 (2:36)

• A♭m7 – A♭m – D♭/A♭ – A♭m (×2)
  iv7 – iv – bVII⁶₄ – iv
• C♭ – B♭m7
  bVI – v7

Part 15 (2:49)

• A♭m7 – G♭ – C♭add9/D♭ – G♭ – E♭m – D♭ – A♭m
  iv7 – bIII – bVIadd9 (bass D♭) – bIII – i – bVII – iv

Part 16 (3:00)

• E♭m – D♭ – G♭ – E♭m – D♭ – A♭m
  i – bVII – bIII – i – bVII – iv

Part 17 (3:12)

Same chords as Part 16 (3:00).

Part 18 (3:24)

Same chords as Part 16 (3:00).

Part 19 (3:35)

• E♭m – D♭ – G♭ – E♭m – D♭
  i – bVII – bIII – i – bVII

Part 20 (3:47)

• A♭m – E♭m – D♭ – G♭ – E♭m – D♭
  iv – i – bVII – bIII – i – bVII

Part 21 (3:59)

• A♭m – E♭m – D♭ – G♭
  iv – i – bVII – bIII

Part 22 (4:11)

Same chords as Part 9 (1:35).

Part 23 (4:23)

• E♭m – D♭ – A♭m – E♭m – D♭
  i – bVII – iv – i – bVII

Part 24 (4:34)

• G♭ – E♭m – D♭ – A♭m – E♭m – D♭
  bIII – i – bVII – iv – i – bVII

Part 25 (4:46)

Same chords as Part 24 (4:34).

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

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