Papa Was a Rollin' Stone by The Temptations

Overview

Key: B♭ minor · Chords used: 1 · Sections: 11

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Solo → Verse → Chorus → Solo → Verse → Chorus ×2 → 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

• B♭m
  i

Verse 1

• B♭m
  i

Chorus 1

• B♭m
  i

Solo 1

• B♭m
  i

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Solo 2

Same chords as Solo 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• B♭m
  i

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
B♭m	i	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Solo, Outro

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 100% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.