Brick House | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :|| x4
Uh! Uh-hu-hu (whistles).
Chorus 1
||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
Ow, she’s a brick house. She’s mighty-mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
She’s a brick house. That lady’s stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back.
Ow, she’s a brick house. Well put together, everybody knows, this is how the story goes.
Verse 1
||: Am Am7 Am Am7 :||
She knows she got everything. That a woman needs to get a man, yeah, yeah.
How can she lose with the stuff she use. Thirty-six, twenty-four, thirty-six oh what a winning hand.
Chorus 2
||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
‘Cause she’s a brick house. She’s mighty-mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
She’s a brick house. Ow, that lady stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back.
Ow, she’s a brick house. Yeah, she’s the one, the only one, built like an amazon.
Verse 2
||: Am Am7 Am Am7 :||
The clothes she wears, her sexy ways. Make a old man wish for younger days, yeah, yeah.
She knows she’s built and knows how to please. Sure enough to knock a strong man to his knees.
Chorus 3
||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
‘Cause she’s a brick house. Yeah, she’s mighty mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
Hey, brick house. That lady’s stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back. Yeah aw.
Breakdown 1
||: Am N.C :||
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down now.
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, down, down.
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down now.
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it aww!
Chorus 4
||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
Brick house. Yeah, she’s mighty mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
Aww brick house. Yeah, she’s the one, the only one, built like an amazon, yeah.
Breakdown 2
||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it, shake it
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it!
Outro
| Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 N.C |
||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
Ow, a brick house.
Brick House Chords: Learn the progressions
Brick House chorus chords are described above as Am7 – Gmaj7 – G#m7b5, but the last two chords are essentially the same, just having the bass note moved up a semitone from G to G#. This is followed by Am7 – D – C.
If we ignore the G#m7b5 as a chord and just see it as a chromatic bass line, all Brick House chords are from A Dorian.
The only other section is the verse which is just Am – Am7. Whenever we get a static min7 chord in this kind of style, it’s a pretty safe bet this is Dorian too, it just makes it groovier.
Should you want to practice improvising using the Dorian mode, Brick House makes a great loop to “blow over”, as sax players would say.
Brick House is one of the 30 best Funk tunes ever!
Lionel Richie’s band The Commodores released Brick House in 1977 as a single from their self-titled 5th studio album.
By now, Motown was firmly established in L.A., having left Detroit behind five years earlier.
The creation of the song came during an equipment failure in the studio, which led the band to be on an unplanned break.
The bass player came up with the first idea, and the guitarist (William King) played the demo for his wife, Shirley Hanna-King who wrote the lyrics by modifying the saying “built like a brick shithouse”
Drummer Clyde Orange sang lead vocals. Where Lionel was during all this remains unclear.
Brick House reached the top 5 in both the U.S. and the U.K. and has been listed as one of the 30 best funk songs ever by Billboard.
Brick House Chords | Related Pages
Five similar tunes with chords and lyrics
- Blurred Lines chords by Robin Thicke
- Kiss chords by Prince
- Superstition chords by Stevie Wonder
- Upside Down chords by Diana Ross
- Uptown Funk chords by Bruno Mars
Lionel Richie tunes
Starting out with Commodores, Lionel Richie had several worldwide smash-hits in Easy, Brick House, and Three Times A Lady.
As a solo artist, he released Hello, All Night Long, and Dancing On The Ceiling, firmly establishing himself as one of the all-time greats.
Lionel Richie on the web
Dance, Disco & Funk
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Brick House chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
