Stop the Wedding by Etta James

Overview

Key: B♭ major · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 4

Form: Intro → Verse → 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

• B♭ – F7 – B♭
  I – V7 – I

Verse

• B♭ – E♭ – F
  I – IV – V
• E♭ – B♭ (×2)
  IV – I
• B♭7 – E♭ – F – E♭ – B♭ – E♭ – E♭/B♭ – B♭
  I7 – IV – V – IV – I – IV – IV⁶₄ – I

Chorus

• B♭ – D – E♭ – Edim – B♭/F – Gm7 – Cm7 – F7 – B♭ – E♭ – B♭ – F7 – B♭ – Gm7 – Cm7 – F7 – B♭ – E♭ – B♭ – F7
  I – III – IV – #iv° – I⁶₄ – vi7 – ii7 – V7 – I – IV – I – V7 – I – vi7 – ii7 – V7 – I – IV – I – V7

Outro

• B♭ – Gm7 – Cm7 – F7 – B♭ – E♭ – B♭ – Gm – F7 (×2)
  I – vi7 – ii7 – V7 – I – IV – I – vi – V7
• B♭
  I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to E♭.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0127, 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.