Hey There Delilah chords


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Hey There Delilah | Chords + Lyrics


Intro (0:00)

||: D5 | F#m :||

Verse 1 (0:11)

| D5 | F#m |
Hey there Delilah what’s it like in New York City?
| D5 | F#m | Bm Bm/A |
I’m a thousand miles away, but girl tonight you look so pretty, yes you do.
| G A | Bm | A A5 |
Times Square can’t shine as bright as you, I swear it’s true.

Verse 2 (0:28)

| D5 | F#m |
Hey there Delilah don’t you worry about the distance,
| D5 | F#m | Bm Bm/A |
I’m right there if you get lonely give this song another listen, close your eyes.
| G A | Bm | A A5 |
Listen to my voice it’s my disguise, I’m by your side

Chorus 1 (0:47)

| D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# | D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# |
Oh, it’s what you do to me, oh it’s what you do to me.
| D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# | D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# | D5 D5/A |
Oh, it’s what you do to me, oh it’s what you do to me, what you do to me.

Verse 3 (1:07)

| D5 | F#m |
Hey there Delilah I know times are getting hard,
| D5 | F#m | Bm Bm/A |
but just believe me girl someday I’ll pay the bills with this guitar, we’ll have it good.
| G A | Bm | A A5 |
We’ll have the life we knew we would, my word is good

Verse 4 (1:25)

| D5 | F#m |
Hey there, Delilah, I’ve got so much left to say,
| D5 | F#m | Bm Bm/A |
if every simple song I wrote to you, would take your breath away, I’d write it all.
| G A | Bm | A A5 |
Even more in love with me you’d fall, we’d have it all.

Chorus 2 (1:43)

| D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# | D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# |
Oh, it’s what you do to me, oh it’s what you do to me.
| D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# | D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/A |
Oh, it’s what you do to me, oh it’s what you do to me.

Middle 8 (2:01)

| G5 | A |
A thousand miles seems pretty far, but they’ve got planes and trains and cars,
| D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/A |
I’d walk to you if I had no other way.
| G5 | A |
Our friends would all make fun of us, and we’ll just laugh along because,
| D5 D5/C# | Bm Bm/A |
we know that none of them have felt this way.
| G5 | A |
Delilah, I can promise you, that by the time that we get through,
| Bm | Bm | A | A5 |
the world will never ever be the same, and you’re to blame.

Verse 5 (2:33)

| D5 | F#m |
Hey there Delilah you be good and don’t you miss me,
| D5 | F#m | Bm Bm/A |
two more years and you’ll be done with school, and I’ll be making history like I do.
| G A | Bm Bm/A | G A | Bm Bm/A |
You’ll know it’s all because of you, we can do whatever we want to.
| G A | Bm | A | A5 |
Hey there Delilah here’s to you, this one’s for you.

Chorus 3 (3:02)

| D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# | D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# |
Oh, it’s what you do to me, oh it’s what you do to me.
| D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# | D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# |
Oh, it’s what you do to me, oh it’s what you do to me, what you do to me.

Outro (3:22)

||: D5 D5/A | Bm Bm/C# :|| x4
Oh, oh, oh…
| D5 D5/A | D |


You can learn how to play Hey There Delilah!


Hey There Delilah’s chord progression starts off with the I – III movement (#8 on my top 10 chord progression list). This is followed by chord VI. A bass line then takes us to chords IV – V, and VI before we finally finish on chord V. Like this:

| D5 (I) | F#m (III) | D5 (I) | F#m (III) | Bm (VI) Bm/A |
| G (IV) A (V) | Bm (VI) | A (V) A5 |

The chorus is just moving between chords I (D) and VI (Bm) with the help of a bass line.

| D5 (I) D5/A | Bm (VI) Bm/C# | D5 (I) D5/A | Bm (VI) Bm/C# |

During the m8 we recycle Hey There Delilah’s chords and mix them up, like this.

| G5 (IV) | A (V) | D5 (I) D5/A | Bm (VI) Bm/A |

However, just playing these chords anywhere on the neck won’t make you sound like the original, one acoustic guitar part. To achieve this, you need TAB of exactly how this was played on the original recording.

Below, you find a guitar lesson that demonstrates, note-for-note, exactly how Mr. Higgenson plays Hey There Delilah.

If you play along with the TAB loops in the playlist, you’ll soon learn how to play Hey There Delilah yourself.


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Hey There Delilah guitar lesson | Verse, chorus chords and TAB

In this guitar lesson, we talk about all the chords from the key of D, followed by the verse and chorus parts for Hey There Delilah.

By using fractions of the CAGED shapes, we get a compact and recognizable part.

Here’s the TAB for the verse, as demonstrated in the video lesson. Use the TAB loop in the playlist above to learn it.

Hey There Delilah chords in TAB, verse.
Hey There Delilah TAB | Verse

Let’s also take a look at the chorus, looks like this in TAB.

Hey There Delilah chords in TAB, chorus.
Hey There Delilah TAB | Chorus

In the course, we next learn the m8 section before we play Hey There Delilah on one acoustic guitar, note-for-note, just like Tom Higgenson does.

Following this, we look at playing all of Hey There Delilah’s chords, all over the neck using the CAGED system. Once you can do this, we can build 2nd guitar parts.

This is what happens in steps 6-8. In the end, you’ll be able to play the song with me and the singer, anywhere on the neck using a complementary part. For the complete experience, sign up here.

Hey There Delilah success

When Hey There Delilah finally started to get international airplay, there was no stopping it. Radio stations had thousands of people calling in to ask about the song as it was played during the first half of 2007.

Building on the hype, it wasn’t released as a single until September, a whole year after Plain White T’s follow-up album!

Slowly climbing the charts, it reached #1 in ten countries during 2007.

Nominated for Best Song and Best Vocal Performance at the 2008 Grammy Awards, Hey There Delilah only lost out to Amy Winehouse and Maroon 5.

Time magazine decided that it should be at #7 on their list of songs of 2007. They added that “the concept of an aching guy reaching out to a distant girl felt fresh”.


Hey There Delilah chords | Related pages


Hey There Delilah – 8 guitar lessons

Hey There Delilah, 8 guitar lessons in the course.

In this first series of lessons in the intermediate acoustic course, we learn how to play Hey There Delilah by Plain White T’s, finger-style.

We do this alongside learning about the CAGED system and how it helps us play all over the fretboard.

Hey There Delilah – 8 guitar lessons.


Intermediate Acoustic Songs

When you can play Hey There Delilah's chords, discover these intermediate acoustic songs.

The intermediate songs can not be played using just basic open-position chords. We have to move up the fretboard and play CAGED barre chords as well.

We incorporate bass lines, licks, extend chords, and even play vocal melodies. Most importantly, we invent 2nd guitar parts and play these songs together.

Intermediate Acoustic Songs.


Hey There Delilah – 5 similar tunes

When you can play Hey There Delilah's chords, try these five tunes from the song book.

Plain White T’s

Find out more about Plain White T's, the band that wrote Hey There Delilah's chords.

Plain White T’s are an American rock band that had great success with their song Hey There Delilah, charting at #1 in many countries in 2007.

Using a very persistent marketing technique, Hey There Delilah was pushed for over two years before it was finally #1.

Plain White T’s tunes.


Plain White T’s on the web

Listen to Plain White T’s on Spotify.

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