Somebody Loves Me by George Gershwin

Overview

Key: G major · Chords used: 15 · Sections: 4

Form: A Section → B Section → C Section → D Section

Where these chords come from: a lead sheet of this public-domain song, contributed by a musician to the Wikifonia archive and preserved in the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). It describes the song as written, not any particular recording. This page shows that lead sheet 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

A Section

• G – Am7 – D7
  I – ii7 – V7
• G – C7 (×2)
  I – IV7
• Am7 – G – D7♭9
  ii7 – I – V7b9

B Section

• G – Am7 – D7 – G – Em6 – Bm – C♯7 – F♯7 – Bm – E7
  I – ii7 – V7 – I – vi6 – iii – #IV7 – VII7 – iii – VI7

C Section

• Am – Am(no5) (×2)
  ii – ii(no5)
• Am
  ii
• Em7 – A7 (×2)
  vi7 – II7
• D7
  V7

D Section

• G – Am7 – D7 – G – C7 – G – Em – Am7 – D7 – G
  I – ii7 – V7 – I – IV7 – I – vi – ii7 – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D7♭9 (V7b9) is borrowed from the parallel key, G minor.
• F♯7 acts as V/iii: it resolves to Bm.
• A7 acts as V/V: it resolves to D7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). Community-contributed lead sheet (chord symbols over the melody) from the Wikifonia archive, MIT licence. Title and songwriter credit as written on the sheet.
• Section names: detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases; a phrase that comes back keeps its letter). Lead sheets rarely print section names.
• Not verified: only one lead sheet of this song is available, so it hasn't been cross-checked.
• 2 chords were simplified to the closest symbol our player supports (for example, an unusual added tone dropped).
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.