Motown Philly by Boyz II Men

Overview

Key: D minor · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 10

Form: Intro → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Instrumental → Interlude → 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.

Section by section

Intro

• Dm7 – Dm
  i7 – i

Chorus 1

• Dm – B♭ – A7 – Dm – B♭ – A7♭9 – A7
  i – bVI – V7 – i – bVI – V7b9 – V7

Verse 1

• Dm – B♭ – A7 – Dm – B♭ – A7♭9 – A7 – Dm – C♯dim7/E – Gm7 – Asus4 – Gm7 – A7 – B♭maj7 – C – A7/C♯
  i – bVI – V7 – i – bVI – V7b9 – V7 – i – vii°⁶₅ – iv7 – Vsus4 – iv7 – V7 – bVImaj7 – bVII – V⁶₅

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Instrumental

• Dm
  i

Interlude

• Dm – B♭ – A7 (×2)
  i – bVI – V7

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• Dm – A7♭9 – A7 – Dm
  i – V7b9 – V7 – i

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0097, 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.