She's Always a Woman by Billy Joel

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 33 · Sections: 12

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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

Part 1 (0:00)

• E♭ – E♭sus4 – E♭ – B♭ – E♭ – A♭/E♭
  I – Isus4 – I – V – I – IV⁶₄
• E♭ – B♭ (×2)
  I – V
• E♭ – A♭ – Cm/E♭ – A♭
  I – IV – vi⁶ – IV

Part 2 (0:18)

• Cm/E♭ – B♭ – E♭ – B♭ – G – Cm – Cm7/B♭ – A♭ – B♭ – E♭ – E♭sus4
  vi⁶ – V – I – V – III – vi – vi⁴₂ – IV – V – I – Isus4
• E♭ – B♭ (×2)
  I – V

Part 3 (0:35)

• E♭ – A♭ – A♭maj7 – A♭6 – A♭ – B♭ – E♭ – B♭ – G7 – Cm – Cm7/B♭ – A♭maj7 – B♭
  I – IV – IVmaj7 – IV6 – IV – V – I – V – III7 – vi – vi⁴₂ – IVmaj7 – V

Part 4 (0:52)

• E♭ – E♭sus4 – E♭ – E♭maj7/D – Cm – Cm7/B♭ – F7/A – F7 – B♭ – B♭maj7/A – Gm – E♭ – A♭ – A♭maj7/G – Fm – B♭7
  I – Isus4 – I – Imaj⁴₂ – vi – vi⁴₂ – II⁶₅ – II7 – V – Vmaj⁴₂ – iii – I – IV – IVmaj⁴₂ – ii – V7

Part 5 (1:08)

• E♭ – A♭/E♭ – E♭ – E♭m – E♭m7/D♭ – C7 – A♭ – D♭ – A♭/C – B♭m – G♭ – C♭ – C♭7/Bbb – Adim7 – F7
  I – IV⁶₄ – I – i – i⁴₂ – VI7 – IV – bVII – IV⁶ – v – bIII – bVI – bVI⁴₂ – #iv°7 – II7

Part 6 (1:24)

• B♭ – B♭6 – B♭7 – B♭6 – E♭ – B♭ – E♭ – A♭ – A♭maj7 – A♭6 – A♭ – B♭7 – E♭ – B♭7
  V – V6 – V7 – V6 – I – V – I – IV – IVmaj7 – IV6 – IV – V7 – I – V7

Part 7 (1:41)

• G7 – Cm – Cm7/B♭ – A♭6 – B♭7 – E♭ – E♭sus4
  III7 – vi – vi⁴₂ – IV6 – V7 – I – Isus4
• E♭ – B♭ (×2)
  I – V
• G7 – Cm – Cm7/B♭
  III7 – vi – vi⁴₂

Part 8 (1:57)

• A♭6 – B♭7 – E♭ – E♭sus4 – E♭ – E♭maj7/D – Cm – Cm7/B♭ – F7/A – F7 – B♭ – B♭maj7/A – Gm – E♭ – A♭ – A♭maj7/G
  IV6 – V7 – I – Isus4 – I – Imaj⁴₂ – vi – vi⁴₂ – II⁶₅ – II7 – V – Vmaj⁴₂ – iii – I – IV – IVmaj⁴₂

Part 9 (2:13)

• Fm – B♭7 – E♭ – A♭add9/B♭ – E♭ – E♭m – E♭m7/D♭ – C7 – A♭ – D♭ – A♭/C – B♭m – G♭ – C♭ – C♭7/Bbb
  ii – V7 – I – IVadd9 (bass B♭) – I – i – i⁴₂ – VI7 – IV – bVII – IV⁶ – v – bIII – bVI – bVI⁴₂

Part 10 (2:30)

• Adim7 – F7 – B♭ – B♭6 – B♭7 – B♭6 – E♭ – B♭ – E♭ – A♭ – A♭maj7 – A♭6 – A♭maj7 – B♭7
  #iv°7 – II7 – V – V6 – V7 – V6 – I – V – I – IV – IVmaj7 – IV6 – IVmaj7 – V7

Part 11 (2:46)

• E♭ – B♭7 – G7 – Cm – Cm7/B♭ – A♭ – E♭/G – Fm – B♭7 – E♭ – E♭sus4 – E♭ – B♭ – E♭ – B♭7
  I – V7 – III7 – vi – vi⁴₂ – IV – I⁶ – ii – V7 – I – Isus4 – I – V – I – V7

Part 12 (3:02)

• G7 – Cm – Cm7/B♭ – A♭6 – B♭7 – E♭ – E♭sus4 – E♭
  III7 – vi – vi⁴₂ – IV6 – V7 – I – Isus4 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E♭m (i) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• E♭m7/D♭ (i⁴₂) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• D♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• B♭m (v) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• G♭ (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• C♭ (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• G acts as V/vi: it resolves to Cm.
• G7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Cm.
• F7 acts as V/V: it resolves to B♭.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (The Stranger), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (The Stranger), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• 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.