I Won't Stand in Your Way by Stray Cats

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 16 · Sections: 8

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

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

• E♭ – Cm7 – B7 – B♭7
  I – vi7 – #V7 – V7

Verse

• E♭ – E♭maj7 – E♭7 – A♭ – A♭m – D♭7 – E♭ – E♭/D – Cm7 – E♭/B♭ – A♭ – Fm – B7 – B♭7
  I – Imaj7 – I7 – IV – iv – bVII7 – I – I (bass D) – vi7 – I⁶₄ – IV – ii – #V7 – V7

Chorus 1

• E♭ – E♭maj7 – E♭7 – A♭ – A♭m – D♭7 – E♭ – E♭/D – Cm7 – E♭/B♭ – Fm7 – B♭13 – E♭ – E♭7
  I – Imaj7 – I7 – IV – iv – bVII7 – I – I (bass D) – vi7 – I⁶₄ – ii7 – V13 – I – I7

Bridge 1

• A♭ – D♭7 – E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – E♭7 – F7 – Fm7 – B♭7
  IV – bVII7 – I – IV – I – I7 – II7 – ii7 – V7

Chorus 2

• E♭ – E♭maj7 – E♭7 – A♭ – A♭m – D♭7 – E♭ – E♭/D – Cm7 – E♭/B♭ – Fm7 – B♭13 – E♭
  I – Imaj7 – I7 – IV – iv – bVII7 – I – I (bass D) – vi7 – I⁶₄ – ii7 – V13 – I

Solo

• E♭ – E♭maj7 – E♭7 – A♭ – A♭m – D♭7 – E♭ – E♭/D – Cm7 – E♭/B♭ – Fm7 – B♭13 – E♭ – A♭m – E♭ – E♭7
  I – Imaj7 – I7 – IV – iv – bVII7 – I – I (bass D) – vi7 – I⁶₄ – ii7 – V13 – I – iv – I – I7

Bridge 2

• A♭ – A♭m – E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – E♭7 – F7 – Fm7 – B7 – B♭7
  IV – iv – I – IV – I – I7 – II7 – ii7 – #V7 – V7

Chorus 3

• E♭ – E♭maj7 – E♭7 – A♭ – A♭m – D♭7 – E♭ – E♭/D – Cm7 – E♭/B♭ – A♭ – D♭7 – Fm7 – B♭13 – E♭ – A♭m – E♭maj9
  I – Imaj7 – I7 – IV – iv – bVII7 – I – I (bass D) – vi7 – I⁶₄ – IV – bVII7 – ii7 – V13 – I – iv – Imaj9

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A♭m (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• D♭7 (bVII7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• E♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1197, 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.