Little Old Lady From Pasadena by Jan & Dean

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Outro

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.

Key changes

• Verse 3 moves to F major.

Section by section

Intro

• B♭
  V

Verse 1

• E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – B♭7 – F – B♭7 – E♭ – A♭ – F – D♭ – B♭7
  I – IV – I – V7 – II – V7 – I – IV – II – bVII – V7

Chorus 1

• E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – G♭ – B♭
  I – IV – I – bIII – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

• E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – G♭ – B♭ – A
  I – IV – I – bIII – V – #IV

Verse 3

• F – B♭ – F – C7 – G – C7 – F – B♭ – G – E♭ – C7
  I – IV – I – V7 – II – V7 – I – IV – II – bVII – V7

Chorus 3

• F – B♭ – F – A♭ – D♭
  I – IV – I – bIII – bVI

Outro

• D♭ – G♭ – D♭ – A♭7 – E♭ – A♭7 (×6)
  bVI – bII – bVI – bIII7 – bVII – bIII7

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• G♭ (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• E♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• A♭ (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• D♭ (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• F acts as V/V: it resolves to B♭7.
• G acts as V/V: it resolves to C7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0635, 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.