Purple Rain by Prince

Overview

Key: B♭ major · Chords used: 5 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → 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♭ – Gm – F – E♭
  I – vi – V – IV

Verse 1

• B♭ – Gm – F – E♭ – B♭ – Gm – F7 – B♭
  I – vi – V – IV – I – vi – V7 – I

Chorus 1

• E♭ – B♭ – Gm – F – F7 – B♭
  IV – I – vi – V – V7 – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• B♭ – Gm – F – E♭ (×9)
  I – vi – V – IV
• B♭
  I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
B♭	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Outro
Gm	vi	In the key	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Outro
F	V	In the key	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Outro
E♭	IV	In the key	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Outro
F7	V7	In the key	Verse, Chorus

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.