Will You Love Me Tomorrow by The Shirelles

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 10

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Verse → Chorus → Instrumental → Chorus

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

• C
  I

Verse 1

• C – F – G – C – G7/D
  I – IV – V – I – V⁴₃

Chorus 1

• E – Am – F – G – C
  III – vi – IV – V – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge

• F – Em – F – C – F – Em – Am – D7 – F – G
  IV – iii – IV – I – IV – iii – vi – II7 – IV – V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Instrumental

• C – F – G – C – G7/D
  I – IV – V – I – V⁴₃

Chorus 4

• E – Am
  III – vi
• F – G – C (×3)
  IV – V – I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
C	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Instrumental
F	IV	In the key	Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Instrumental
G	V	In the key	Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Instrumental
G7/D	V⁴₃	In the key	Verse, Instrumental
E	III	Secondary dominant (V/vi)	Chorus
Am	vi	In the key	Chorus, Bridge
Em	iii	In the key	Bridge
D7	II7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Bridge

Harmonic highlights

• E acts as V/vi: it resolves to Am.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1239, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Cross-check: 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. Independently transcribed; it matches this page's chords closely (similarity 79%).
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.