50s Progression
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The 50s progression is a chord progression (ie sequence of chords) used in Western popular music. As the name implies, it was common in the 1950s and early 1960s and is particularly associated with doo-wop.
The progression is
- I vi IV V
for example, C Am F G (in C).
As with any other chord progression, there are many possible variations, for example turning the V into a V7, or extended repeats of I vi followed by a single IV V. A very common variation is replacing the IV with ii.
[edit] Songs Using the Progression
There are far too many examples of songs using this progression to produce an exhaustive list. However some examples of well-known songs which use it are:
- 'Heart and Soul (song)' - Hoagy Carmichael
- 'Blue Moon' - Rodgers and Hart
- 'Oh Carol' - most associated with Neil Sedaka
- 'Every Breath You Take' - The Police
- 'Please Mister Postman' - The Marvelettes
- 'I Know It's Over' - The Smiths
- 'Stand By Me' - Ben E. King
- 'Sleep Walk' - Santo & Johnny
- 'Once Upon a Time' - Bobby Darin
- Pts 1 & 2 ('Jesus of Suburbia' and 'City Of The Damned') of 'Jesus of Suburbia' - Green Day
- 'In the Aeroplane Over the Sea' - Neutral Milk Hotel
- 'Baby, I'm an Anarchist! - Against Me!
- 'Wasted' - Carrie Underwood
- 'Earth Angel' - The Penguins
- 'D'yer Mak'er' - Led Zeppelin
- 'Octopus's Garden' and 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun' (second half) - The Beatles
- 'Dream' - Johnny Mercer
- 'The Quiet Things that No One Ever Knows' - Brand New
- 'Soul Love' - David Bowie
- 'The Thin Ice' - Pink Floyd
- 'Those Magic Changes' - Sha Na Na (featured in the film Grease, the lyrics to this song seem to be about the 50s progression)
- 'Untitled - Simple Plan
- 'Music When the Lights Go Out' - the Libertines uses the ii substitution
- 'Runaround Sue' - Dion
- Dance With Me - Adam Green
- Teenager Liebe - Die Ärzte
- 'Grace Cathedral Hill' - The Decemberists (uses I-vi-IV-V-V7 in the verse)
- '1234 1234' - Streetlight Manifesto
[edit] See also
- Twelve bar blues, another common chord progressionfr:I-vi-IV-V
