Venus by Bananarama

Overview

Key: E minor · Chords used: 9 · Sections: 15

Form: Transition → Intro → Transition → Instrumental → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Transition → Solo → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Transition → 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.

Section by section

Transition 1

• B7sus4
  V7sus4

Intro

• Em – A6 (×2)
  i – IV6

Transition 2

Same chords as Transition 1.

Instrumental

• Em – A6 (×4)
  i – IV6

Verse 1

• Em – A6 (×7)
  i – IV6
• Em
  i

Chorus 1

• Am7 – D6 (×2)
  iv7 – bVII6
• Em – A6 – Em – A6 – C – B7sus4 – B7 (×2)
  i – IV6 – i – IV6 – bVI – V7sus4 – V7
• Em – A6 (×2)
  i – IV6

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Transition 3

Same chords as Transition 1.

Solo

• Em – A6 (×7)
  i – IV6
• Em
  i

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 3

• Em – A – Em7 – A (×4)
  i – IV – i7 – IV

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Transition 4

Same chords as Transition 1.

Outro

• Em – A6 (×16)
  i – IV6

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A6 (IV6) is borrowed from the parallel key, E major.
• A (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, E major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0981, CC0), via ChoCo.
• 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.