Karma Chameleon by Culture Club

Overview

Key: B♭ major · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 10

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

• B♭
  I

Verse 1

• B♭ – F (×2)
  I – V
• B♭
  I
• E♭ – F (×3)
  IV – V
• Cm7 – Gm – F
  ii7 – vi – V

Chorus 1

• B♭ – Fmaj7/A – Gm – Cm7 – Fsus4 – F – B♭ – Dm7 – Gm – Cm7 – Fsus4 – F
  I – Vmaj⁶₅ – vi – ii7 – Vsus4 – V – I – iii7 – vi – ii7 – Vsus4 – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge

• E♭add9 – Dm7 – Cm – Gm7 (×2)
  IVadd9 – iii7 – ii – vi7
• F
  V

Solo

• B♭ – F (×2)
  I – V
• B♭
  I
• E♭ – F (×3)
  IV – V
• Cm7 – Gm – F
  ii7 – vi – V

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 5

• B♭ – Fmaj7/A – Gm – Cm7 – Fsus4 – F – B♭ – Dm7 – Gm – Cm7 – Fsus4 – F (×2)
  I – Vmaj⁶₅ – vi – ii7 – Vsus4 – V – I – iii7 – vi – ii7 – Vsus4 – V

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0979, 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.