White Wedding by Billy Idol

Overview

Key: B minor · Chords used: 10 · Sections: 6

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Interlude → Verse → Verse

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

Intro

• Bm – E – D – Bm – D – E – Bm7 – Bm
  i – IV – bIII – i – bIII – IV – i7 – i

Verse 1

• B5 – A5 – E5 (×2)
  I5 – bVII5 – IV5
• B5 – A5 – B5 – A – E
  I5 – bVII5 – I5 – bVII – IV
• Bm – E – D (×2)
  i – IV – bIII
• Bm
  i

Verse 2

• Bm – A – E (×2)
  i – bVII – IV
• Bm – A (×2)
  i – bVII
• E
  IV
• Bm – E – D (×2)
  i – IV – bIII
• Bm
  i

Interlude

• Bm – E – D – Bm – D – E – Bm – Bm/E – Bm – D – E – Bm9 – A – E – Bm
  i – IV – bIII – i – bIII – IV – i – i (bass E) – i – bIII – IV – i9 – bVII – IV – i

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 2.

Verse 4

• Bm – E – D – Bm – D – E
  i – IV – bIII – i – bIII – IV
• Bm – E – D (×3)
  i – IV – bIII

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, B major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0701, 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.