You've Got a Friend by Carole King

Overview

Key: A♭ major · Chords used: 28 · Sections: 11

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Chorus → Intro → Verse → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Chorus → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). 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.

Key changes

• Verse 1 moves to F minor.
• Chorus 1 moves to A♭ major.
• Verse 3 moves to F minor.
• Chorus 2 moves to A♭ major.

Section by section

Intro 1

• A♭ – D♭/A♭ – A♭ – Gm – C9
  I – IV⁶₄ – I – vii – III9

Verse 1

• Fm – C7/G
  i – V⁴₃
• C7 – Fm (×3)
  V7 – i
• B♭m7 – E♭7 – A♭
  iv7 – bVII7 – bIII

Verse 2

• Gm7
  ii7
• C7 – Fm (×3)
  V7 – i
• B♭m7 – Cm7 – D♭6/E♭ – E♭ – D♭6/E♭
  iv7 – v7 – bVI6 (bass E♭) – bVII – bVI6 (bass E♭)

Chorus 1

• A♭ – D♭ – A♭ – D♭6/E♭ – A♭ – D♭ – A♭6 – A♭7 – D♭ – Cm7 – B♭m7 – D♭6/E♭
  I – IV – I – IV6 (bass E♭) – I – IV – I6 – I7 – IV – iii7 – ii7 – IV6 (bass E♭)

Intro 2

• A♭ – D♭/A♭ – D♭ – A♭/C – B♭m – A♭/C – A♭ – Gm7 – C
  I – IV⁶₄ – IV – I⁶ – ii – I⁶ – I – vii7 – III

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 2.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge

• G♭ – D♭ – A♭ – A♭maj7 – D♭ – G♭7 – Fm – B♭7 – B♭m7/E♭ – E♭7
  bVII – IV – I – Imaj7 – IV – bVII7 – vi – II7 – ii7 (bass E♭) – V7

Chorus 3

• A♭ – D♭ – A♭ – D♭6/E♭ – A♭ – D♭ – Fm7 – A♭7/E♭ – D♭maj7 – Cm7 – B♭m7 – D♭6/E♭
  I – IV – I – IV6 (bass E♭) – I – IV – vi7 – I⁴₃ – IVmaj7 – iii7 – ii7 – IV6 (bass E♭)

Outro

• A♭ – D♭/A♭ (×3)
  I – IV⁶₄
• A♭ – D♭
  I – IV
• A♭ – D♭/A♭ (×2)
  I – IV⁶₄
• D♭/G – A♭ – D♭/A♭ – A♭
  IV (bass G) – I – IV⁶₄ – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Gm7 (ii7) is borrowed from the parallel key, F major.
• G♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• G♭7 (bVII7) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• A♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to D♭.
• A♭7/E♭ acts as V/IV: it resolves to D♭maj7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). Expert chord and structure annotation of the original recording (CC BY 4.0 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.