Sweet Surrender by Bread

Overview

Key: A major · Chords used: 15 · Sections: 7

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Outro → 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

• A – Bmadd11/A (×2)
  I – iiadd11 (bass A)
• A – Bmadd11/E (×2)
  I – iiadd11 (bass E)

Verse 1

• A – E11 (×3)
  I – V11
• Amaj7 – A7
  Imaj7 – I7
• D – E (×2)
  IV – V
• A – E11 (×2)
  I – V11

Verse 2

• A – E11 (×3)
  I – V11
• Amaj7 – A7
  Imaj7 – I7
• D – E (×2)
  IV – V
• F♯m – E
  vi – V

Bridge

• D – E/D – A/C♯ – A/G – D/F♯ – E – F♯m – D – E/D – A/C♯ – A7
  IV – V (bass D) – I⁶ – I (bass G) – IV⁶ – V – vi – IV – V (bass D) – I⁶ – I7
• D – E (×2)
  IV – V

Verse 3

• A – E11 (×3)
  I – V11
• Amaj7 – A7
  Imaj7 – I7
• D – E (×2)
  IV – V
• F♯m – D
  vi – IV

Outro 1

• A – E11 (×3)
  I – V11
• Amaj7 – A7
  Imaj7 – I7
• D – E (×2)
  IV – V
• F♯m – D – F♯m – B7 – D – E
  vi – IV – vi – II7 – IV – V

Outro 2

• A – E11 (×2)
  I – V11
• A – Dm/A – A
  I – iv⁶₄ – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Dm/A (iv⁶₄) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.
• A7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to D.
• A/G acts as V/IV: it resolves to D/F♯.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0847, 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.