Everybody’s Talkin’ | Chords + Lyrics (capo 4)
Intro
||: Cmaj7 G6 | Cmaj7 G6 :||
Verse 1
| Cmaj7 G6 | Cmaj7 G6 |
Everybody’s talkin’ at me,
| C7 C6/G | C7 C6/G |
I don’t hear a word they’re saying.
| Dm7 G7 | Dm7 G7 | Cmaj13 G6 | Cmaj13 G6 |
Only the echoes of my mind.
Verse 2
People stop and stare and,
I can’t see their faces.
Only the shadows of their eyes.
Chorus 1
| Dm (Dmmaj7) | G7 G13 |
I’m going where the sun keeps shining.
| C C/G | C7 C6/G |
Through the pouring rain.
| Dm (Dmmaj7) | G7 G13 | C C/G | C7 C6/G |
Going where the weather suits my clothes.
| Dm (Dmmaj7) | G7 G13 |
Banking off of the northeast winds.
| C C/G | C7 C6/G |
Sailing on a summer breeze.
| Dm (Dmmaj7) | G7 G13 | C C/G | C7 C6/G |
And skipping over the ocean, like a stone.
Chorus Tag
| C C/G | C7 C6/G |
Wah, wah wah-wah wah.
| C C/G | C7 C6/G |
Wah-wah wah-wah, wah wah-wah.
| G7 | G7 | Cmaj13 G6 | Cmaj13 G6 |
Wahhh.
Chorus 2
I’m going where the sun keeps shining.
Through the pouring rain.
Going where the weather suits my clothes.
Banking off of the northeast winds.
Sailing on a summer breeze.
And skipping over the ocean, like a stone.
Verse 3
Everybody’s talkin’ at me,
can’t hear a word they’re saying.
Only the echoes of my mind.
Outro
||: G7 | G7 | Cmaj13 G6 | Cmaj13 G6 :|| to fade
I won’t let you leave my love behind.
No, I won’t let you leave.
Ooh, wah, ah.
I won’t let you leave my love behind.
Everybody’s Talkin’ Chords: Learn the progressions!
I can turn most songs into an acoustic guitar arrangement. Over the years, it has become a speciality of mine.
When I first heard Everybody’s Talkin’, it was the Harry Nilsson version on the radio, I liked it but didn’t at the time have the ability to work it out.
A few years later I heard the Stephen Stills version and loved it, so much so I ignored learning the famous version.
Stephen plays it much more chilled and I developed some kind of alternative version of that.
Playing it at gigs, people didn’t like it as they wanted to hear the characteristic fast-picked guitar, I could sense this and dropped the song.
Now, many, many years later when I work this out from the original, I have to admit it has defeated me, I can’t make Everybody’s Talkin’ work on one acoustic guitar.
After three days of trying, I’ve given up, I have to have a bass player or a 2nd guitar playing rhythms on beats 1, and 2 +, I simply can’t incorporate that bass line movement into the fast picking.
Along with this steady rhythm, the fast picking sounds great, here’s a link to the transcription in TAB: Everybody’s Talkin’ – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
The verse uses these chords (there’s TAB for this too):
| Cmaj7 G6 | Cmaj7 G6 |
| C7 C6/G | C7 C6/G |
| Dm7 G7 | Dm7 G7 | Cmaj13 G6 | Cmaj13 G6 |
The fast picking is challenging but once you’ve got the patterns down it’s like anything else, you just need to practise it, and the speed comes after a few days.
Everybody’s Talkin’s chorus is chords II – V, followed by a descending movement over chord I (C), like this:
||: Dm (Dmmaj7) | G7 G13 |
| C C/G | C7 C6/G :||
The chorus tag keeps that last descending movement going before we change the chords, like this:
||: C C/G | C7 C6/G :||
| G7 | G7 | Cmaj13 G6 | Cmaj13 G6 |
Those last two bars are similar to the end of the verse but the picking pattern is more busy (check the TAB).
Finally, the outro chords are a V chord (G7) going to the same pattern we had at the end of the verse on repeat to fade, like this:
||: G7 | G7 | Cmaj13 G6 | Cmaj13 G6 :||
All these parts sound amazing, as long as you have a bass player and/or 2nd guitarist playing the syncopated half-time feel groove. Without it, this fast-picked stuff sounds extremely strange. I guess they filed this tune under the genre of Orchestral-Pop for a good reason!
Having understood, practised and brought that fast picking up to speed, this simple chord chart is all you need to bring to the gig.
Everybody’s Talkin’ Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Everybody’s Talkin’ Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Everybody’s Talkin’ iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Everybody’s Talkin’ original and cover versions
The original version was written, recorded and released by Fred Neil in 1966.
In 1968, Harry Nilsson released his version which is the one everybody knows on the album Aerial Ballet.
The following year, after having been included in the soundtrack for the movie Midnight Cowboy, it was re-released and climbed the charts higher than the first time around.
Since Fred wrote it and Harry’s success with Everybody’s Talkin’, everyone else seemingly wanted to get in on the action, here’s a list of artists/bands that have recorded Everybody’s Talkin’:
- the Beautiful South
- Glen Campbell
- Crosby Stills & Nash
- Crowded House
- Neil Diamond
- Julio Iglesias
- Willie Nelson
- Madeleine Peyroux
- Bill Withers
- Stevie Wonder
I’ve included all versions in the playlist at the top of this page.
Everybody’s Talkin’ Chords | Related Pages
Everybody’s Talkin’ | Guitar Lesson + TAB
In this guitar lesson, you get TAB for all of Everbody’s Talkin‘s fast finger-picked sections.
| Cmaj7 G6 | Cmaj7 G6 |
Everybody’s talkin’ at me,..
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- Arthur’s Theme chord by Christopher Cross
- Babylon chors by David Gray
- The Boxer chords by Simon & Garfunkel
- Take It Easy chords by Eagles
- Ventura Highway chords by America
Harry Nilsson tunes
Known as the 5th Beatle, Harry Nilsson was a singer-songwriter from New York who moved to L.A. to pursue a recording career.
Harry is best known for the tunes EVerybody’s Talkin’, Coconut, One, Without You, and Spaceman.
Harry Nilsson on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Everybody’s Talkin’ chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
