It's Too Late by Carole King

Overview

Key: A minor · Chords used: 14 · Sections: 10

Form: Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Solo → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). 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.

Key changes

• Chorus 1 moves to F major.
• Verse 2 moves to A minor.
• Chorus 2 moves to F major.
• Solo moves to A minor.
• Chorus 3 moves to F major.
• Outro moves to C major.

Section by section

Verse 1

• Am7 – D6 (×4)
  i7 – IV6
• Am7 – Gm7 – Fmaj7
  i7 – bvii7 – bVImaj7

Chorus 1

• B♭maj7 – Fmaj7 (×3)
  IVmaj7 – Imaj7
• Dm7 – E – Em7
  vi7 – VII – vii7

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

• B♭maj7 – Fmaj7 (×3)
  IVmaj7 – Imaj7
• Dm7 – F/G – G7
  vi7 – I (bass G) – II7

Bridge 1

• Cmaj7 – Fmaj7 – B♭maj7 – Am7 – Gm7 – Fmaj7 – Dm7 – Emaj7 – E7
  Vmaj7 – Imaj7 – IVmaj7 – iii7 – ii7 – Imaj7 – vi7 – VIImaj7 – VII7

Solo

• Am7 – D6 (×8)
  i7 – IV6

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 2.

Bridge 2

• Cmaj7 – Fmaj7 – B♭maj7 – Am7 – Gm7 – Fmaj7 – Dm7 – F/G – G7
  Vmaj7 – Imaj7 – IVmaj7 – iii7 – ii7 – Imaj7 – vi7 – I (bass G) – II7

Outro

• Cmaj7 – Fmaj7 (×2)
  Imaj7 – IVmaj7
• C9
  I9

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D6 (IV6) is borrowed from the parallel key, A major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). Expert chord and structure annotation of the original recording (CC BY 4.0 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.