I Want You Back by The Jackson 5

Overview

Key: A♭ major · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Chorus → Chorus ×2

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

• A♭ – D♭ – Fm – Cm – D♭ – A♭ – B♭m – E♭ (×2)
  I – IV – vi – iii – IV – I – ii – V
• A♭ – D♭ – B♭m – E♭ – Fm – Cm – D♭ – A♭ – B♭m – E♭ – A♭
  I – IV – ii – V – vi – iii – IV – I – ii – V – I

Verse 1

• A♭ – D♭ – Fm – Cm – D♭ – A♭ – B♭m – E♭ (×2)
  I – IV – vi – iii – IV – I – ii – V
• A♭
  I

Chorus 1

• A♭ – D♭ – B♭m – E♭ – Fm – Cm – D♭ – A♭ – B♭m – E♭ (×2)
  I – IV – ii – V – vi – iii – IV – I – ii – V
• A♭
  I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

• A♭ – D♭ – B♭m – E♭ – Fm – Cm – D♭ – A♭ – B♭m – E♭ – A♭ – D♭ – B♭m – E♭ – Fm – Cm – D♭ – A♭
  I – IV – ii – V – vi – iii – IV – I – ii – V – I – IV – ii – V – vi – iii – IV – I

Bridge

• Fm – Cm – D♭ – A♭ (×8)
  vi – iii – IV – I

Chorus 3

• A♭ – D♭ – B♭m – E♭ – Fm – Cm – D♭ – A♭ – B♭m – E♭ – A♭
  I – IV – ii – V – vi – iii – IV – I – ii – V – I

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 3.

Chorus 5

Same chords as Chorus 3.

Chord vocabulary

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 83% of the song.
• Not verified: the two RS 200 analysts differ in places (see their agreement above).
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.