Tainted Love by Soft Cell
Piano chords, voicings & structure breakdown · 2 steps · 2 unique chords · 1980s
Gm/B♭
Whole song transcribed by
Harmonic Analysis & Structure
Overview
Key: G minor · Chords used: 2 · Sections: 5
Form: Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse
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
Verse 1
- Gm/B♭
i⁶
Chorus 1
- Cm
iv
Verse 2
Same chords as Verse 1.
Chorus 2
Same chords as Chorus 1.
Verse 3
Same chords as Verse 1.
Chord vocabulary
| Chord | Roman numeral | Role | Heard in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gm/B♭ | i⁶ | Home chord (tonic) | Verse |
| Cm | iv | In the key | Chorus |
Sources & accuracy
- Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0654, CC0), via ChoCo.
- Not verified: another expert transcription (the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University)) differs in places from this one, so this page isn't marked verified.
- Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.
Sources & Accuracy
Every chord on this page comes from the expert transcription listed first below. Piano voicings are our arrangement of the reported chord symbols, not a note-for-note transcription.
- the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011)Expert transcription
Annotated from the original recording by trained musicians for a published research dataset.
Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0654, CC0), via ChoCo.
All Piano Voicings
| # | Section | Chord | Left hand | Right hand | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verse 1 | Gm/B♭ | B♭2 | B♭3, D4, G4 | — |
| 2 | Chorus 1 | Cm | C2, G2 | C4, E♭4, G4 | — |