You've Got a Friend by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

Overview

Key: A♭ major · Chords used: 20 · Sections: 7

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

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

• A♭ – D♭/A♭ – A♭ – Gm7♭5 – C7
  I – IV⁶₄ – I – viiø7 – III7

Verse

• Fm – C7/G – C7 – Fm – C7/G – Fm/A♭ – C7/G – Fm – B♭m7 – E♭7 – A♭
  vi – III⁴₃ – III7 – vi – III⁴₃ – vi⁶ – III⁴₃ – vi – ii7 – V7 – I

Pre-Chorus

• Gm7♭5 – C7 – Fm – C7/G – Fm/A♭ – C7/G – Fm – B♭m7 – Cm7 – E♭11 – E♭
  viiø7 – III7 – vi – III⁴₃ – vi⁶ – III⁴₃ – vi – ii7 – iii7 – V11 – V

Chorus 1

• A♭ – A♭7 – D♭ – A♭ – E♭7 – A♭ – A♭maj7 – D♭ – G♭ – D♭ – D♭maj7 – Cm7 – B♭m7 – A♭
  I – I7 – IV – I – V7 – I – Imaj7 – IV – bVII – IV – IVmaj7 – iii7 – ii7 – I

Bridge

• G♭add9 – D♭ – A♭ – D♭ – G♭7 – Fm7 – B♭m7 – E♭11 – E♭
  bVIIadd9 – IV – I – IV – bVII7 – vi7 – ii7 – V11 – V

Chorus 2

• A♭ – A♭7 – D♭ – A♭ – E♭7 – A♭ – A♭maj7 – D♭ – G♭ – D♭ – D♭maj7 – Cm7 – B♭m7
  I – I7 – IV – I – V7 – I – Imaj7 – IV – bVII – IV – IVmaj7 – iii7 – ii7

Outro

• A♭ – D♭/A♭ (×6)
  I – IV⁶₄

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• G♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• G♭add9 (bVIIadd9) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• G♭7 (bVII7) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• C7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Fm.
• C7/G acts as V/vi: it resolves to Fm/A♭.
• A♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to D♭.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0004, 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.