Town Without by Gene Pitney

Overview

Key: B minor · Chords used: 40 · Sections: 7

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Verse → Outro

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.

Key changes

• Verse 4 moves to C major.

Section by section

Intro

• Bmadd9 – Emadd9 – G9 – F♯7sus4 – F♯7
  iadd9 – ivadd9 – bVI9 – V7sus4 – V7

Verse 1

• Bm – Em – F♯m7♭5/C – B7 – Em – Em/G – D/A – F♯7sus4 – F♯7
  i – iv – vø⁴₃ – I7 – iv – iv⁶ – bIII⁶₄ – V7sus4 – V7

Verse 2

• Bm – Bmadd9 – Em – Emadd9 – F♯m7♭5/C – B7 – Em – Em/G – D/A – A7 – D
  i – iadd9 – iv – ivadd9 – vø⁴₃ – I7 – iv – iv⁶ – bIII⁶₄ – bVII7 – bIII

Bridge

• G – G6 (×2)
  bVI – bVI6
• G – E7sus4 – E7 – A – A6 – Amaj7 – F♯m7 – Bm – E – A – A/G
  bVI – IV7sus4 – IV7 – bVII – bVII6 – bVIImaj7 – v7 – i – IV – bVII – bVII (bass G)

Verse 3

• Bm – Bmadd11 – Em – Emadd11 – F♯m7♭5/C – B7 – Em – Em/G – D/A – G – F♯7sus4 – F♯7 – Em/G – A – D – G7
  i – iadd11 – iv – ivadd11 – vø⁴₃ – I7 – iv – iv⁶ – bIII⁶₄ – bVI – V7sus4 – V7 – iv⁶ – bVII – bIII – bVI7

Verse 4

• Cmadd9 – Fmadd9 – Fm – Gm7♭5/D♭ – C7 – Fm – Fm/A♭ – E♭/B♭ – G7sus4 – G7
  iadd9 – ivadd9 – iv – vø⁴₃ – I7 – iv – iv⁶ – bIII⁶₄ – V7sus4 – V7

Outro

• A♭7 – G7sus4 – G7 – Cm – G/B – Gm/B♭ – F/A – Fm/A♭ – G – Cmadd9 – Fmadd9 – Cmaj13
  bVI7 – V7sus4 – V7 – i – V⁶ – v⁶ – IV⁶ – iv⁶ – V – iadd9 – ivadd9 – Imaj13

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, B major.
• Cmadd9 (iadd9) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• Fmadd9 (ivadd9) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• Fm (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• Fm/A♭ (iv⁶) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• E♭/B♭ (bIII⁶₄) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• F/A (IV⁶) is borrowed from the parallel key, C major.
• Cmaj13 (Imaj13) is borrowed from the parallel key, C major.
• B7 acts as V/iv: it resolves to Em.
• E7 acts as V/bVII: it resolves to A.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1037, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• 5 chords were 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.