Not Fade Away by Buddy Holly and the Crickets

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 3 · Sections: 16

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Tag → Transition → Verse ×2 → Tag → Transition → Solo → Transition → Verse ×2 → Tag → Transition → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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

• E – A (×4)
  I – IV
• E
  I

Verse 1

• E – A – D
  I – IV – bVII
• A – E (×2)
  IV – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Tag 1

• E – A – E
  I – IV – I

Transition 1

• E – A (×3)
  I – IV
• E
  I

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Tag 2

Same chords as Tag 1.

Transition 2

Same chords as Transition 1.

Solo

• A – D – A – D – A – E – A – E – A – E (×2)
  IV – bVII – IV – bVII – IV – I – IV – I – IV – I

Transition 3

Same chords as Transition 1.

Verse 5

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 6

Same chords as Verse 1.

Tag 3

Same chords as Tag 1.

Transition 4

Same chords as Transition 1.

Outro

• E – A – E
  I – IV – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 79% of the song.
• Not verified: the two RS 200 analysts differ in places (see their agreement above).
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.