Why Don't You Do Right? by Kansas Joe McCoy

Overview

Key: D minor · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 2

Form: Blues Chorus → Blues Chorus

Where these chords come from: a chord chart of this song written by a musician and shared on the iReal Pro forums, archived in the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). It's one musician's reading of the song, not a transcription checked against the recording. This page shows that chart 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

Blues Chorus 1

• Dm – Bm7♭5 – B♭7 – A7 (×2)
  i – viø7 – bVI7 – V7
• Gm7 – A7 – B♭7 – A7 – Bm7♭5 – B♭dim7 – B♭7 – A7 – Dm – B♭7 – A7
  iv7 – V7 – bVI7 – V7 – viø7 – bvi°7 – bVI7 – V7 – i – bVI7 – V7

Blues Chorus 2

Same chords as Blues Chorus 1.

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
Dm	i	Home chord (tonic)	Blues Chorus
Bm7♭5	viø7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Blues Chorus
B♭7	bVI7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Blues Chorus
A7	V7	In the key	Blues Chorus
Gm7	iv7	In the key	Blues Chorus
B♭dim7	bvi°7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Blues Chorus

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). Community chord chart “Why Don't You Do Right? (Tom's)” (credited “McCoy Kansas-Joe”, style Medium Swing) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata.
• Section names: the chart has no section markings, so sections were detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases).
• Cross-check: the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). Community chord chart “Why Don't You Do Right?” (credited “McCoy Kansas-Joe”, style Medium Swing) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata. A separately posted chart of the same song; its chords match this page's closely when both are read in the same key (similarity 73%).
• Chord charts are often written in a key that suits a particular singer or band, so this may not be the key of the original recording.
• About the song: Wikipedia.
• Verified: two community charts of this song, posted in different forum threads, agree on its harmony. They're still charts, not transcriptions checked against the recording.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.