Wonderful Tonight | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: G | D/F# | C | D :||
Verse 1
||: G | D/F# | C | D :||
It’s late in the evening, she’s wondering what clothes to wear.
She puts on her makeup and brushes her long blonde hair.
Chorus 1
| C | D | G D/F# | Em |
And then she asks me “Do I look all right?”.And I say,
| C | D |
“Yes, you look wonderful tonight”.
Instrumental 1
| G | D/F# | C | D |
Verse 2
We go to a party and everyone turns to see.
This beautiful lady, who’s walking around with me.
Chorus 2
| C | D | G D/F# | Em |
And then she asks me “Do you feel all right?”.
| C | D | G | D/F# |
And I say, “Yes, I feel wonderful tonight”.
Middle 8
| C | D | G D/F# | Em |
I feel wonderful because I see the love light in your eyes.
| C | D | C | D |
Then the wonder of it all is that you just don’t realize, how much I love you.
Instrumental 2
||: G | D/F# | C | D :||
Verse 3
It’s time to go home now and I’ve got an aching head.
So I give her the car keys and she helps me to bed.
Chorus 3
| C | D | G D/F# | Em |
And then I tell her, as I turn out the light.
| C | D | G D/F# | Em |
I say, “My darling you were wonderful tonight”
| C | D |
“Oh, my darling, you were wonderful tonight”
Outro
||: G | D/F# | C | D :|| G |
Wonderful Tonight Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!). I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, horns, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Should you want to play along with the original recording instead, you need to tune your guitar sharp to 441Hz. In the backing tracks, I’ve done this job for you by tuning it to 440Hz.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
Wonderful Tonight is a masterclass in minimalistic ballad writing. The chords are simple yet effective, and the guitar melody hits all the right notes.
Verse
The chord progressions subtly evolve throughout. It begins with the section used for the intro, verse, instrumental, and outro:
||: G (I) | D/F# (V/3) | C (IV) | D (V) :||
Chorus
The chorus follows a similar progression but starts on the C chord, creating a slightly different feel:
| C (IV) | D (V) | G (I) D/F# (V/3) | | Em (VI) | C (IV) | D (V) |
The only addition in the chorus is the Em chord, and the G and D/F# now share a bar—genius in its simplicity!
For a deeper understanding, including a full exploration of the intro melody, be sure to check out the TAB further down this guitar lesson.
In the TAB, you’ll study the melody in detail and learn how to express it through techniques like slides, hammer-ons, and vibrato.
Mastering these techniques will enhance your improvisational skills. Once you’ve absorbed these lessons, you’ll only need a simple chord chart to help you play with confidence along with the backing tracks.
Wonderful Tonight Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Wonderful Tonight chord chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Wonderful Tonight iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Wonderful Tonight | TAB
In order to be melodic and memorable, a melody needs to hit mainly chord notes, only using other notes to create tension.
Wonderful Tonight’s guitar melody does this exceptionally well, let’s look at it in TAB.
Start by playing the melody like you would play Itsy Bitsy Spider. Don’t add anything for now, just focus on the intervals.
- G – start on the 3rd, and move down to the root via the 2nd (tension).
- D/F# – start on the 5th, the 6th and 4th are tension notes.
- C – start on the 3rd, jump to 7, down to 5th via 6th (tension).
- D – start on the 5th, the rest are tension, b7 is a chord note but it’s still tension.
- G – start on the 5th.
All chord notes are release notes. The 3rd is the money note. Notice how every bar starts on a release note: 3rd – 5th – 3rd – 5th – 5th.
Next, let’s develop this melody to become better guitar players. First, we slide or hammer on into suitable notes, which look like this using TAB:
Experiment with sliding to all instead of hammering on as well. When you feel confident, let’s try bending instead:
Ensure all bends are perfectly in tune. Finally, let’s combine all the concepts and also added vibrato:
On a final note, consider this: whenever you vibrato without first bending up to the note, you are not actually playing a real vibrato.
This is because you don’t go below the note. A true vibrato needs to move both below and above the target note. If you vibrato without first bending, you are only doing it above the note, not below.
Using a real musical example as we did here with Wonderful Tonight is a much better idea than any bending, vibrato, hammer-on, or sliding exercise, as they by nature are unmusical and mechanical. Using a real tune like this ensures you stay musical.
Should you want to get better at understanding the fretboard, play what you saw above in the remaining four CAGED shapes, use the backing tracks when practicing.
Should some of the shapes turn out to be too low on the neck for bending, change the key!
Wonderful Tonight Chords: Continue Learning
Step-by-step Guitar Courses
Master guitar by studying real tunes. Build your skills with video lessons, eBooks and practice routines that connect theory with the music you love!
Explore SpyTunes step-by-step Guitar Courses.
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
