Three Little Words by Harry Ruby

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 13 · Sections: 4

Form: A Section → A Section → Bridge → A Section

Where these chords come from: a lead sheet of this public-domain song, contributed by a musician to the Wikifonia archive and preserved in the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). It describes the song as written, not any particular recording. This page shows that lead sheet 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

A Section 1

• Cmaj7 – E♭m7 – A♭9
  Imaj7 – biii7 – bVI9
• Dm7 – G7 (×2)
  ii7 – V7

A Section 2

Same chords as A Section 1.

Bridge

• Gm7 – Cmaj7(no3) – C7 – Fmaj7 – B♭7 – A7 – A♭7 – G7
  v7 – Imaj7(no3) – I7 – IVmaj7 – bVII7 – VI7 – bVI7 – V7

A Section 3

• Cmaj7 – E♭m7 – A♭9 – Dm7 – G7 – C6
  Imaj7 – biii7 – bVI9 – ii7 – V7 – I6

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Gm7 (v7) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• B♭7 (bVII7) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• C7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to Fmaj7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). Community-contributed lead sheet (chord symbols over the melody) from the Wikifonia archive, MIT licence. Title and songwriter credit as written on the sheet.
• Section names: detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases; a phrase that comes back keeps its letter). Lead sheets rarely print section names.
• Not verified: only one lead sheet of this song is available, so it hasn't been cross-checked.
• 1 chord was simplified to the closest symbol our player supports (for example, an unusual added tone dropped).
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.