Play That Funky Music by Wild Cherry

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 5 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Solo → Verse → Pre-Chorus → 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

• E9
  I9

Verse 1

• E9
  I9

Pre-Chorus 1

• E7
  I7

Chorus 1

• G9 – B♭9 – B7♯9 – E9
  bIII9 – bV9 – V7#9 – I9

Solo

• E9
  I9

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Pre-Chorus 2

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• G9
  bIII9

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B7♯9 (V7#9) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1014, 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.