Never Knew Love Like This Before by Stephanie Mills

Overview

Key: B major · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Instrumental → 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.

Section by section

Intro

• B – E9sus4 – E – F♯add9/A♯ – D♯m7 – G♯m7 – C♯m7 – F♯9sus4 – E – F♯9sus4
  I – IV9sus4 – IV – Vadd9 (bass A♯) – iii7 – vi7 – ii7 – V9sus4 – IV – V9sus4

Verse 1

• B – E9sus4 – E – F♯/A♯ – D♯m7 – G♯m7 – C♯m7 – F♯9sus4 (×3)
  I – IV9sus4 – IV – V⁶ – iii7 – vi7 – ii7 – V9sus4
• D♯m7
  iii7

Chorus 1

• Emaj7 – D♯m7 – G♯m7 – C♯m7 – D♯m7 (×2)
  IVmaj7 – iii7 – vi7 – ii7 – iii7
• Emaj7 – D♯m7 – G♯m7 – C♯7sus4 – C♯7 – F♯9sus4
  IVmaj7 – iii7 – vi7 – II7sus4 – II7 – V9sus4

Instrumental

• B – E9sus4 – E – F♯/A♯ – D♯m7 – G♯m7 – C♯m7 – F♯9sus4
  I – IV9sus4 – IV – V⁶ – iii7 – vi7 – ii7 – V9sus4

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 3

• B – E9sus4 – E – F♯/A♯ – D♯m7 – G♯m7 – C♯m7 – F♯9sus4 (×2)
  I – IV9sus4 – IV – V⁶ – iii7 – vi7 – ii7 – V9sus4
• D♯m7
  iii7

Chorus 3

• Emaj7 – D♯m7 – G♯m7 – C♯m7 – D♯m7 (×4)
  IVmaj7 – iii7 – vi7 – ii7 – iii7

Outro

• Emaj7 – D♯m7 – G♯m7 – C♯m7 – D♯m7 (×8)
  IVmaj7 – iii7 – vi7 – ii7 – iii7

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E9sus4 (IV9sus4) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.
• C♯7 acts as V/V: it resolves to F♯9sus4.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1112, 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.