Tenderness by General Public

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 12

Form: Intro → Verse → Transition → Chorus → Verse → Bridge → Chorus → Bridge → Transition → Chorus → Bridge → Chorus

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

• F – C – G (×3)
  IV – I – V

Verse 1

• F – C – G (×4)
  IV – I – V

Transition 1

• F – C – G
  IV – I – V

Chorus 1

• F6/G – F – C – G
  IV6 (bass G) – IV – I – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 1

• Em – F – G – Em – Am – G (×2)
  iii – IV – V – iii – vi – V

Chorus 2

• F6/G – F – C – G (×2)
  IV6 (bass G) – IV – I – V

Bridge 2

• Em – F – G – F – Em – F – G – B♭maj7
  iii – IV – V – IV – iii – IV – V – bVIImaj7

Transition 2

• F – C – G (×2)
  IV – I – V

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 2.

Bridge 3

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Chorus 4

• F6/G – F – C – G (×9)
  IV6 (bass G) – IV – I – V

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0389, 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.