Ain’t No Mountain High Enough chords by Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell

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Ain’t No Mountain High Enough | Chords + Lyrics

Intro

Verse 1

Chorus 1

| G Em7 | F#m7 Bm7 | G Em7 | F#m7 Bm7 |
Ain’t no mountain high enough. Ain’t no valley low enough.
| G Em7 | F#m7 Bm7 | E5 | G |
Ain’t no river wide enough, to keep me from getting to you, baby. Remember the day?

Verse 2

Chorus 2

| G Em7 | F#m7 Bm7 | G Em7 | F#m7 Bm7 |
Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough,
| G Em7 | F#m7 Bm7 | E5 | G |
Ain’t no river wide enough, to keep me from getting to you, baby.

Middle 8

| A | A | A | A |
Oh no darling, no wind, no rain, or
| F#m | Bm7 | G | G |
winters cold can stop me baby (no, no baby). ‘Cause you are my love.
| A | A | Bb | Bb |
If you’re ever in trouble, I’ll be there on the double, just send for me, oh baby.

Verse 3 (new key)

Chorus 4

Outro chorus

||: Ab Fm7 | Gm7 Cm7 :||
Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough.
Ain’t no river wide enough, ain’t no mountain high enough,
Ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough.

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’s chords and progressions

The verse has a chromatic descending bass line as we move from Bm7/A – G#m7b5 – Gmaj7. This is finished off with an Em9, and the chromatic ascending line of F# – G – G#. Jameson, of course, doesn’t stick to the chromatic line!

The chorus starts on chord IV. G – Em7 – F#m7 – Bm7. That’s IV – II – III – VI. The giveaway here is the two minor chords that are a tone apart.

The m8 starts on the V chord and moves A – F#m – Bm7 – G – A – Bb. That’s V – III – VI – IV – V. The final Bb is where the semi-tone key change happens.

The final verse and following chorus are in the key of Cm/Eb, rather than where we started, in Bm/D.

The well-oiled machine behind Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

Written by songwriters Ashford & Simpson, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough was initially a song Dusty Springfield wanted to record.

The songwriting duo politely declined as they thought they had the song that would get them in with Berry Gordy and his label Motown, calling it their golden egg.

In 1967, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell recorded it for Motown and had an enormous hit with it.

Three years later, Diana Ross recorded her version, which actually climbed higher in the charts than Marvin Gaye’s version.

However, it is Marvin and Tammi’s version that has stood the test of time and made it onto every Motown band’s set list since.

When mentioning Motown, and the band that played on this hit, The Funk Brothers, it would be criminal to not bring up the genius behind it all, bass player James Jamerson.

Jamerson truly is the secret behind Motown’s sound, check the second video in the playlist above which gives you a visual representation of the bass line.