Little White Lies by Walter Donaldson

Overview

Key: G major · Chords used: 13 · Sections: 8

Form: A Section → A Section → Bridge → A Section → A Section → A Section → Bridge → A Section

Where these chords come from: a lead sheet of this public-domain song, contributed by a musician to the Wikifonia archive and preserved in the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). It describes the song as written, not any particular recording. This page shows that lead sheet 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

A Section 1

• D7
  V7
• G – C/G (×2)
  I – IV⁶₄
• G – Cm – G – E7 – D7
  I – iv – I – VI7 – V7

A Section 2

• G – D7
  I – V7
• G – C/G (×2)
  I – IV⁶₄
• G – Cm – G – E7 – D7
  I – iv – I – VI7 – V7

Bridge 1

• G – Em
  I – vi
• B – F♯7 (×2)
  III – VII7
• A7 – D (×2)
  II7 – V
• A7/E – A7♭5
  II⁴₃ – II7♭5

A Section 3

Same chords as A Section 1.

A Section 4

• G – Am7♭5 – D7
  I – iiø7 – V7
• G – C/G (×2)
  I – IV⁶₄
• G – Cm – G – E7 – D7
  I – iv – I – VI7 – V7

A Section 5

Same chords as A Section 2.

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

A Section 6

• D7
  V7
• G – C/G (×2)
  I – IV⁶₄
• G – Cm – G – E7 – D7 – G
  I – iv – I – VI7 – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Cm (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, G minor.
• Am7♭5 (iiø7) is borrowed from the parallel key, G minor.
• A7 acts as V/V: it resolves to D.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). Community-contributed lead sheet (chord symbols over the melody) from the Wikifonia archive, MIT licence. Title and songwriter credit as written on the sheet.
• Section names: detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases; a phrase that comes back keeps its letter). Lead sheets rarely print section names.
• Not verified: only one lead sheet of this song is available, so it hasn't been cross-checked.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.