Strong by Robbie Williams

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 13

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Robbie Williams chord annotations (Di Giorgi et al., Politecnico di Milano, 2013). 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 (0:01)

• E♭ – A♭
  I – IV

Part 2 (0:06)

• Fm – B♭ – E♭ – F – A♭ – B♭ – E♭ – A♭
  ii – V – I – II – IV – V – I – IV

Part 3 (0:29)

• Fm – B♭ – E♭ – A♭ – Fm – B♭ – Fm – Cm
  ii – V – I – IV – ii – V – ii – vi

Part 4 (0:51)

• Fm – B♭ – E♭ – F – A♭ – B♭ – E♭ – F
  ii – V – I – II – IV – V – I – II

Part 5 (1:13)

• A♭ – B♭ – E♭ – A♭ – Fm – B♭ – E♭ – A♭
  IV – V – I – IV – ii – V – I – IV

Part 6 (1:35)

• Fm – B♭ – Fm – Cm – Fm – B♭ – E♭ – F
  ii – V – ii – vi – ii – V – I – II

Part 7 (1:58)

• A♭ – B♭ – E♭ – F – A♭ – B♭ – B♭m/D♭ – A♭/E♭
  IV – V – I – II – IV – V – v⁶ – IV⁶₄

Part 8 (2:20)

• Fm – C – B♭m – A♭ – Fm – B♭ – E♭ – F – A♭ – B♭
  ii – VI – v – IV – ii – V – I – II – IV – V

Part 9 (2:41)

• E♭ – F – A♭ – B♭ – Fm – Cm – Fm – G♭
  I – II – IV – V – ii – vi – ii – bIII

Part 10 (3:03)

• D♭ – E♭ – F – A♭ – B♭ – E♭ – F – A♭
  bVII – I – II – IV – V – I – II – IV

Part 11 (3:25)

• B♭ – E♭ – F – A♭ (×2)
  V – I – II – IV

Part 12 (3:48)

Same chords as Part 11 (3:25).

Part 13 (4:10)

• B♭ – E♭ – F – A♭ (×2)
  V – I – II – IV
• B♭
  V

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭m/D♭ (v⁶) 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.
• D♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Robbie Williams chord annotations (Di Giorgi et al., Politecnico di Milano, 2013). Chord annotation of the original recording (I've Been Expecting You, 1998), 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 (I've Been Expecting You, 1998), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• 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.