Talk:Three-chord song

"Barbara Ann"

• "'Barbara Ann' by the Beach Boys is a nice example of an effective three-chord song."

Why was the above removed? Hyacinth 10:44, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

It was probably some Wikidick who fervently believes you have to have a citation to say a three-chord song is a three-chord song, when anybody with a shred of musical awareness can hear it for themselves.

I wanted to point out, you'll notice "Barbara Ann" is a cover song. Real Beach Boys songs, composed by Brian Wilson, are almost never three-chord songs, except the earliest ones. In fact, Al Jardine, when he proposed the old folk tune Sloop John B for the Beach Boys to cover, said:

"I figured if I gave it to him in the right light, he might end up believing in it. So I modified the chord changes so it would be a little more interesting. The original song is basically a three-chord song, and I knew that wouldn't fly. So I put some minor changes in there, and it stretched out the possibilities from a vocal point of view."

. . . In the end, there was only one extra chord in there, the minor ii (B-flat minor in the key of A-flat Major), but I guess that did the trick. And it was a bigger hit than the originals on Pet Sounds, which are all very complex, with interesting, unique chord changes. God, I hate people.

--63.25.234.43 (talk) 20:34, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

move to I-IV-V, change content

i was unpleasantly surprised that the first-fourth-fifth chord progression did not have its' own article, while first-second-fifth, which is much less notable (and not to mention an inversion of the former) does. anyway, three chord songs are pretty much already all first fourth fifths, at least in the context of this article. i say we trim this page down, move it to first fourth fifth (or I-IV-V per naming conventions), and add some content on the progessions' relevancy in popular music, starting with blues. what do you guys say? Joeyramoney 00:00, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Hotel Yorba

Hotel Yorba is almost entirely G C D7, but has an F for one or two beats, so I have removed it. 81.110.175.134 02:07, 28 July 2007 (UTC) O

Blues/Rock Structure Songs

I don't want to modify this article in any way, but I think that you should remove from the example "Heartbreak Hotel", as almost all Classic Rock and Blues songs are indeed three chord songs.

I dont think any songs should be listed at all.

If you include Heartbreak Hotel, you could also include Jailhouse Rock, Hoochie Koochie Man, Red House, Johnny B. Goode... and any Chuck Berry, B.B. King or John Lee Hooker song you could imagine (for example). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.25.0.108 (talk) 09:05, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

"Almost all" is not correct where Classic rock is concerned. The two biggest chart-topping acts of the mid-1960s, The Beach Boys and The Beatles, both used a great variety of chord progressions, some of them quite sophisticated. (I tend to think Brian Wilson led the way on this one, and Paul McCartney followed along, taking notes.) If by "Classic rock" you actually meant the country/blues-inflected Rock and roll music of the 1950s, you may have a point, but that is not how "Classic rock" is defined in its Wikipedia article.

"Almost all" appears in the article here, too. I'm going to try re-wording it.

--63.25.29.153 (talk) 13:32, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Punk Rock

Took out Punk Rock in See Also; it's often used as a particular slight against punk rock, when as noted, a great many songs in popular supergenres adhere to the format. Adding punk rock in the See Also list without discussing it in the context of the actual article (or listing other genres) seems more insulting than informative. 208.58.42.116 (talk) 12:10, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Harlan Howard

The phrase "three chords and the truth" has been attributed to so many people that, ironically, the true source may be lost to antiquity. Can someone cite a reference for Harlan Howard as the source? Pvsage (talk) 12:20, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Formal name and origin of progression I - I - I - V / V - V - V - I / I - I - I7 - IV / IV - I - V - I ?

I've been trying to find formal discussion of the following chord progression:

		Measure within line
		1	2	3	4
Line within stanza	1	I	I	I	V[often 7]
	2	V[often 7]	V[often 7]	V[often 7]	I
	3	I	I	I[usually 7]	IV
	4	IV	I, (occasionally) V or V7, or (infrequently) IV	V[often 7]	I

Examples include:

• "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins
• "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" (verses)
• "Let's Talk Dirty In Hawaiian"
• "I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman" (uses substitute chord vi in measure 4 of line 2)

I'd appreciate any information about the following:

• Whether this progression has a specific name, either technical (cf. "pazzamezzo antico/moderno", "romanesca") or popular (cf. "Gregory Walker", "sensitive female", "Rhythm changes", " '50s progression")
• The identity, time, and geographic origin of its earliest attested uses: Although its simplicity and popularity suggest that it originated long before it was written down, I'd still be interested to know what incarnation was the first that someone thought important enough to set down in writing.

In addition to posting your response here, please post a copy on my talk page. Thanks!

-- Antediluvian67 (talk) 21:30, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

(Cc.: Talk:Chord_progression, Talk:Harmonic_progression)