Blame It On The Boogie chords

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Blame It On The Boogie | Chords + Lyrics

Intro

||: Eb riff | Eb riff :|| x4
Hee, hee, hee.

Verse 1

| Cm7 | Eb |
My baby’s always dancin’ and it wouldn’t be a bad thing.
| Cm7 | Ab Eb |
But I don’t get no lovin’ and that’s no lie.
| Cm7 | Eb |
We spent the night in Frisco, at every kind of disco.
| Ab6 Ab | Bb11 |
From that night I kissed our love goodbye.

Chorus 1

| Eb6 | Db7sus4 |
Don’t blame it on the sunshine. Don’t blame it on the moonlight.
| Db7 | Eb |
Don’t blame it on the good times. Blame it on the boogie.
| Eb6 | Db7sus4 |
Don’t you blame it on the sunshine. Don’t blame it on the moonlight.
| Db7 | Eb |
Don’t blame it on the good times. Blame it on the boogie.

Verse 2

| Cm7 | Eb |
That nasty boogie bugs me, but somehow it has drugged me.
| Cm7 | Ab Eb |
Spellbound rhythm gets me, on my feet.
| Cm7 | Eb |
I’ve changed my life completely, I’ve seen the lightning leave me.
| Ab6 Ab | Bb11 |
My baby just can’t take her eyes off me.

Chorus 2

Middle 8

||: Eb Cm7 | Fm7 Ab :|| x4
||: I just can’t, I just can’t, I just can’t control my feet :|| x4

Chorus 3

| Eb6 | Db7sus4 |
Sunshine. Don’t blame it on the moonlight.
| Db7 | Eb |
Don’t blame it on the good times. Blame it on the boogie.
| Eb6 | Db7sus4 |
Don’t blame it on the sunshine. Don’t blame it on the moonlight.
| Db7 | Eb |
Don’t, on the good times. Blame it on the boogie.

Instrumental

||: Eb riff | Eb riff :||

Verse 3

| Cm7 | Eb |
This magic music grooves me, that dirty rhythm moves me.
| Cm7 | Ab Eb |
The devil’s gotten to me, through this dance.
| Cm | Eb |
I’m full of funky fever, a fire burns inside me.
| Ab6 Ab | Bb11 |
Boogie’s got me in a super trance.

Chorus 4

| Eb6 | Db7sus4 |
Don’t blame it on the sunshine. Don’t blame it on the moonlight.
| Db7 | Eb |
Don’t blame it on the good times. Blame it on the boogie.
| Eb6 | Db7sus4 |
Don’t you blame it, sunshine. Don’t blame it on the moonlight.
| Db7 | Eb |
Don’t blame it on good times. Blame it on the boogie. Ow!

Breakdown

| Eb | Db | Db | Eb |
(Sunshine) oh, (moonlight) yeah, (good times) mmm, (boogie).
| Eb | Db | Db | Eb |
You just got to (sunshine) yeah, (moonlight) (good times) good times, (boogie).

Outro chorus

| Eb6 | Db7sus4 |
Don’t you blame it (sunshine). You just got to (moonlight).
| Db7 | Eb |
You just wanna (good times). Yeah, oh (boogie).
| Eb6 | Db7sus4 |
Blame it on yourself (sunshine). Ain’t nobody’s fault (moonlight).
| Db7 | Eb |
But yours and that boogie (good times). On all night long (boogie).
| Eb6 | Db7sus4 |
Yours and that boogie (sunshine). Ain’t nobody’s fault (moonlight).
| Db7 | Eb |
But yours and that boogie (good times). Dancin’ all night long (boogie).
| Eb6 | Db7sus4 |
Blame it on yourself (sunshine). Ain’t nobody’s fault (moonlight).
| Db7 | Eb |
But yours and that funky, funky boogie, boogie, yeah.

Blame it on the Boogie’s chords and progressions

Being in Cm/Eb with one chord outside the key, the chords for Blame It On The Boogie give you a sense of wanting to keep moving, let’s look at how they do this.

The intro riff uses Eb Major blues scale, that’s a Major Pentatonic, with a minor 3rd. Before the riff loops, it is played syncopated, which feels uplifting.

When the verse starts, we move Cm – Eb, a reverse minor fall, again, this feels uplifting.

This is followed by Cm7 – Ab – Eb. Resolving to Eb in bar four feels early, again, uplifting.

The second time around, we go to an Ab6 Ab, Bb11 at the end instead. 11 chords are, you guessed it, uplifting! Here’s Blame It On The Boogie’s verse chords:

| Cm7 | Eb | Cm7 | Ab Eb |
| Cm7 | Eb | Ab6 Ab | Bb11 |

The chorus finds a bVIIx chord in Db7sus4. This is not a traditional V – IV movement since IV has to be #11, not sus4. But I guess you could see it as a V – IV of a blues in Ab.

So in a way, this is a modal interchange from Eb Ionian to Eb Mixolydian. Here’s Blame It On The Boogie’s chorus chords:

| Eb6 | Db7sus4 | Db7 | Eb |

The only section with other chords is the “I just can’t, I just can’t, I just can’t control my feet” part. Here we have a new chord in the Fm7, like this:

| Eb Cm7 | Fm7 Ab |

Using the chords and lyrics for Blame It On The Boogie above, can you play along with the video?

The battle of the boogie

In 1978, The Jackson 5 had become The Jacksons following a switch from Berry Gordy’s Motown to Sony’s label Epic.

Without the watchful eye of Mr. Gordy, the band now had complete artistic control. This may have looked like a big risk, but the band delivered and the hits just kept on coming.

One of the biggest was Blame It On The Boogie, a song so popular it is still played by most wedding bands every Saturday.

When it comes to event bands’ repertoire, this one is up there with Respect, Superstition, All Night Long, Never Too Much, and I Feel Good. All songs you simply must know if you want to make a living playing the guitar.

In the charts, Blame It On The Boogie did reasonably well, reaching #3 in the U.S. Hot RnB singles chart as its best effort.

Hilariously enough, the two Jackson brothers who wrote Blame It On the Boogie are actually English and called Dave and Mick Jackson.

Mick and Dave recorded their version first, with their band, wait for it – Jacko!

The Jacksons released their cover version within a few days – a genius publicity stunt as it gave the radio stations something to debate – which version was better?!?

For Mick and Dave, it must have been one serious payday when the PRS check arrived later that year, not to mention – every year since!

If this all sounded like some kind of disco version of Spinal Tap, check all three videos in the playlist above and discover “The Battle Of The Boogie”.