When You're Gone by Bryan Adams & Melanie C

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 14

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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

Part 1 (0:00)

• Dm – F/C
  ii – IV⁶₄

Part 2 (0:04)

• C – G – Dm – G – C – F/C – C – Dm – G
  I – V – ii – V – I – IV⁶₄ – I – ii – V

Part 3 (0:18)

• C – F/C (×2)
  I – IV⁶₄
• C – Dm – G – C – F/C – C – Dm
  I – ii – V – I – IV⁶₄ – I – ii

Part 4 (0:31)

• B♭ – G – Dm – F – C – G – Dm
  bVII – V – ii – IV – I – V – ii

Part 5 (0:47)

• F – C – G – Dm (×2)
  IV – I – V – ii

Part 6 (1:02)

• B♭ – G – Dm – G – C – F/C
  bVII – V – ii – V – I – IV⁶₄

Part 7 (1:16)

• Dm – G – C (×2)
  ii – V – I

Part 8 (1:32)

• Dm – B♭ – G – Dm – F – C – G
  ii – bVII – V – ii – IV – I – V

Part 9 (1:47)

• Dm – F – C – G (×2)
  ii – IV – I – V

Part 10 (2:02)

• Dm – B♭ – G – Dm – G – C
  ii – bVII – V – ii – V – I

Part 11 (2:17)

Same chords as Part 7 (1:16).

Part 12 (2:33)

Same chords as Part 8 (1:32).

Part 13 (2:48)

Same chords as Part 9 (1:47).

Part 14 (3:03)

• Dm – B♭ – G – Dm – B♭ – F
  ii – bVII – V – ii – bVII – IV

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (On A Day Like Today), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (On A Day Like Today), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• 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.