The Rose by Bette Midler

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 17 · Sections: 4

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → 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

Intro

• C5
  I5

Verse 1

• C – G/B – F/A – G/B (×2)
  I – V⁶ – IV⁶ – V⁶
• C – C/B – Fsus2/A – F/A – F/G – G7 – C – G/B – F/A – G – Cadd9
  I – I (bass B) – IVsus2 (bass A) – IV⁶ – IV (bass G) – V7 – I – V⁶ – IV⁶ – V – Iadd9

Verse 2

• Cadd9 – Gadd9 – Fadd9 – G (×2)
  Iadd9 – Vadd9 – IVadd9 – V
• Cadd9 – Em/B – Amadd11 – Aadd11/G – Fadd9 – G – Cadd9 – Gadd9 – Fadd9 – G – C
  Iadd9 – iii⁶₄ – viadd11 – VIadd11 (bass G) – IVadd9 – V – Iadd9 – Vadd9 – IVadd9 – V – I

Verse 3

• C – G – F – G (×2)
  I – V – IV – V
• C – Em – Amadd11 – Fadd9 – Gadd9 – Cadd9 – Gadd9 – Fadd9 – G – Cadd9 – C
  I – iii – viadd11 – IVadd9 – Vadd9 – Iadd9 – Vadd9 – IVadd9 – V – Iadd9 – I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
C5	I5	Home chord (tonic)	Intro
C	I	Home chord (tonic)	Verse
G/B	V⁶	In the key	Verse
F/A	IV⁶	In the key	Verse
C/B	I (bass B)	Home chord (tonic)	Verse
Fsus2/A	IVsus2 (bass A)	In the key	Verse
F/G	IV (bass G)	In the key	Verse
G7	V7	In the key	Verse
G	V	In the key	Verse
Cadd9	Iadd9	Home chord (tonic)	Verse
Gadd9	Vadd9	In the key	Verse
Fadd9	IVadd9	In the key	Verse
Em/B	iii⁶₄	In the key	Verse
Amadd11	viadd11	In the key	Verse
Aadd11/G	VIadd11 (bass G)	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse
F	IV	In the key	Verse
Em	iii	In the key	Verse

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0006, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Cross-check: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (The Rose), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Independently transcribed; it matches this page's chords closely (similarity 69%).
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.