Up on the Roof by The Drifters

Overview

Key: A♭ major · Chords used: 5 · Sections: 13

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse ×2 → Bridge → Interlude → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Verse → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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

• A♭
  I

Verse 1

• A♭ – Fm – D♭ – B♭m – E♭ – A♭
  I – vi – IV – ii – V – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 1

• D♭ – A♭ – Fm – D♭ – E♭
  IV – I – vi – IV – V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Interlude

• A♭
  I

Verse 5

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 3

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Verse 6

• A♭ – Fm – D♭ – E♭ – A♭
  I – vi – IV – V – I

Verse 7

Same chords as Verse 6.

Outro

• Fm – A♭ – Fm
  vi – I – vi

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
A♭	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Bridge, Interlude, Outro
Fm	vi	In the key	Verse, Bridge, Outro
D♭	IV	In the key	Verse, Bridge
B♭m	ii	In the key	Verse
E♭	V	In the key	Verse, Bridge

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 90% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.