The Road to Mandalay by Robbie Williams

Overview

Key: C minor · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 12

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 (0:00)

• Fm – Fm6 – Cm – Fm – G7 – Csus4 – Cm
  iv – iv6 – i – iv – V7 – Isus4 – i

Part 2 (0:19)

• Fm – Fm6 – Cm – Fm – G7 – Csus4 – C
  iv – iv6 – i – iv – V7 – Isus4 – I

Part 3 (0:38)

• A♭ – B♭/A♭ – E♭ – A♭ – Gm – Fm – B♭
  bVI – bVII (bass A♭) – bIII – bVI – v – iv – bVII

Part 4 (0:58)

• Fm – B♭ – E♭ – Cm – Fm – B♭ – Cm
  iv – bVII – bIII – i – iv – bVII – i

Part 5 (1:17)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 6 (1:36)

Same chords as Part 2 (0:19).

Part 7 (1:56)

Same chords as Part 3 (0:38).

Part 8 (2:15)

• Fm – B♭ – E♭ – Cm – A♭ – B♭ – Cm
  iv – bVII – bIII – i – bVI – bVII – i

Part 9 (2:34)

Same chords as Part 8 (2:15).

Part 10 (2:54)

Same chords as Part 8 (2:15).

Part 11 (3:13)

Same chords as Part 8 (2:15).

Part 12 (3:33)

• Fm – Fm6 – Cm – Fm – G7 – Cm
  iv – iv6 – i – iv – V7 – i

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• C (I) is borrowed from the parallel key, C major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Robbie Williams chord annotations (Di Giorgi et al., Politecnico di Milano, 2013). Chord annotation of the original recording (Sing When You're Winning, 2000), 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 (Sing When You're Winning, 2000), 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.