Everybody Hurts | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: 6/8 D | D | G5 | G5 :||
Verse 1
||: D | D | G5 | G5 :||
When your day is long.
And the night, the night is yours alone.
When you’re sure you’ve had enough.
| D | D | G5 | G5 G5/F# |
Of this life, well hang on.
Chorus 1
| Em | Em | A | A |
Don’t let yourself go.
| Em | Em | A | A |
‘Cause everybody cries.
| Em | Em | A | A N.C |
And everybody hurts.
| D | D | G5 | G5 |
Sometimes. Sometimes everything is wrong.
| D | D | G5 | G5 |
Now it’s time to sing along.
Verse 2
||: D | D | G5 | G5 :||
When your day is night alone (hold on).
(Hold on) If you feel like letting go (hold on).
If you think you’ve had too much.
| D | D | G5 | G5 G5/F# |
Of this life, well hang on.
Chorus
||: Em | Em | A | A :||
‘Cause everybody hurts.
Take comfort in your friends.
Everybody hurts.
Middle 8
| F# | F# | Bm | Bm | F# | F# | Bm | Bm |
Don’t throw your hand, oh, no.
| F# | F# | Bm | Bm |
Don’t throw your hand.
| C | C | G | G |
If you feel like you’re alone.
| C | C C/B | Am | Am N.C |
No, no, no, you are not alone.
Verse 3
||: D | D | G5 | G5 :||
If you’re on your own.
In this life, the days and nights are long.
When you think you’ve had too much.
| D | D | G5 | G5 G5/F# |
Of this life, to hang on to.
Chorus
| Em | Em | A | A |
Well, everybody hurts.
| Em | Em | A | A |
Well, sometimes everybody cries.
| Em | Em | A | A N.C | N.C |
Everybody hurts.
Outro
||: D | D | G5 | G5 | D | D | G5 | G5 :||
Sometimes. And everybody hurts, sometimes.
So hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on.
Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on.
Everybody hurts.
Everybody Hurts’ chords, progressions, and TAB
If it wasn’t for the subject matter and middle 8 section, I’d nominate Everybody Hurts for best beginner song of all time. The chords and picking pattern are certainly perfectly suited.
The verse is just I – IV in the key of D. Since there is no 3rd in the G, we must call the G chord a G5. Here’s TAB.
The chorus is a II – V, another super common chord progression (check my top 10 chord progression list and find both the verse and chorus progressions on it!)
Also, compare Everybody Hurts chords with Mad World’s chords, they are identical. Here they are displayed using TAB, notice how it’s the same pattern as the G chord had in the verse.
Should you want some variation, you could include the bass line into this chorus pattern, here’s what that looks like using TAB.
Finally, the middle 8. Now we are leaving beginner territory as there are barre chords here. If you want to find a way around that, use power chords instead. These are Everybody Hurts middle 8 section chords.
| F# | F# | Bm | Bm | F# | F# | Bm | Bm |
| F# | F# | Bm | Bm | C | C | G | G |
| C | C C/B | Am | Am N.C |
There are a few things that happen here. We start with the mediant major, that’s chord IIIx in my book, which should have been F#m in the key of D. Bm is chord VI.
The C – G – C – Am is a key change from D to C.
My favorite part about this is that it ends on an Am, stops, then starts in D major. We could see this as a modal interchange where the Am has gone from being chord VI in C, to chord V in D.
Everybody Hurts chords | Related pages
Five similar tunes
- A Change Is Gonna Come chords
- Ain’t No Sunshine chords
- Mad World chords
- Redemption Song chords
- Robin Hood chords
R.E.M.
Formed in 1980, R.E.M. spent a decade on the road honing their craft before they took over the world with the album Out Of Time.
Their best tunes include The One I Love, Shiny Happy People, Losing My Religion, Drive, Man On The Moon, and Everybody Hurts.
R.E.M on the web
