Chords + Lyrics | Hit The Road Jack
Intro
||: G#m F# | E7 D#7 :||
Chorus 1
||: G#m F# | E7 D#7 :||
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back,
no more, no more, no more, no more.
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back no more. What you say?
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back,
no more, no more, no more, no more.
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back no more.
Verse 1
||: G#m F# | E7 D#7 :||
Oh woman, oh woman, don’t treat me so mean,
you’re the meanest old woman that I’ve ever seen.
I guess if you said so, I’ll have to pack my things and go (that’s right).
Chorus 2
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back,
no more, no more, no more, no more.
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back no more. What you say?
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back,
no more, no more, no more, no more.
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back no more.
Verse 2
Now baby, listen baby, don’t ya treat me this a way,
’cause I’ll be back on my feet some day.
(Don’t care if you do ’cause it’s understood, you ain’t got no money, you just ain’t no good)
Well, I guess if you say so. I’ll have to pack my things and go (that’s right).
Chorus 3
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back,
no more, no more, no more, no more.
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back no more. What you say?
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back,
no more, no more, no more, no more.
Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back no more.
Outro
||: G#m F# | E7 D#7 :||
Well (don’t you come back no more).
Uh, what you say? (don’t you come back no more).
I didn’t understand you (don’t you come back no more).
You can’t mean that (don’t you come back no more).
Oh, now baby, please (don’t you come back no more).
What you tryin’ to do to me? (don’t you come back no more).
Oh, don’t treat me like that (don’t you come back no more).
Hit The Road Jack | Chords + Lyrics (Helen Reddy)
Intro
| Gm | Gm |
Chorus 1
| Gm F | Eb D7 |
Hit the Road Jack, don’t you come back, no more, no more, no more, no more.
| Gm F Eb D7 | Gm D7 |
Hit the Road Jack and don’t you come back no more.
| Gm F | Eb D7 |
Hit the Road Jack, don’t you come back, no more, no more, no more, no more.
| Gm F Eb D7 | Gm D7 |
Hit the Road Jack and don’t you come back no more.
Verse 1
| Gm N.C | N.C |
Oh Daddy, oh Daddy, why you’d treat me so mean. You’re the meanest old Daddy that I’ve ever have seen.
| Gm N.C | N.C |
You know if and I say so: You’ll have to pack your things and go, that’s right!
Chorus 2
Hit the Road Jack, don’t you come back, no more, no more, no more, no more.
Hit the Road Jack, and don’t you come back no more. Hear what I say!
Hit the Road Jack, don’t you come back, no more.
Hit the Road Jack and don’t you come back no more.
Instrumental (key change)
| Gm | Gm | Abm | Abm |
Verse
| Abm N.C | N.C |
Now Baby, listen Baby, don’t you treat me this way, well I’ll be back on my feet some day.
| N.C | N.C |
Don’t care what you do, cause it’s understood, if you ain’t got money you ain’t no good.
| Abm N.C | N.C |
You know if and I say so: You’ll have to pack your things and go, that’s right!
Chorus 3
| Abm Gb | E Eb7 |
Hit the Road Jack, don’t you come back. Hit the road Jack, don’t you come back.
| Abm Gb E Eb7 | Abm Eb7 |
Hit the Road Jack, don’t you come back no more.
| Abm Gb | E Eb7 |
Hit the Road Jack, don’t you come back no more, no more, no more.
| Abm Gb E Eb7 |
Hit the Road Jack, don’t you come back no more.
Outro
||: Abm7 | Db9 :|| x4
| Abm |
||: Abm7 | Db9 :|| x4
| Abm |
Hit The Road Jack Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Hit The Road Jack. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, horns, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Should you want to play along with the original recording instead, you need to tune your guitar to 446Hz (Ray Charles) and 443Hz (Helen Reddy). In the backing tracks, I’ve done this job for you by tuning it to 440Hz.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
Built on an endless VI – V – IV – IIIx loop in the key of Abm, Hit the Road Jack keeps driving forward, constantly building tension.
This progression — Abm – Gb – E – Eb7 — is ranked #9 on Spytunes’ Top 10 Chord Progression list. Compare it to One More Cup of Coffee by Bob Dylan.
For the Ray Charles version, I’ve written the chords as G#m rather than Abm, even though soul bands with horn sections tend to avoid sharp keys. So, theoretically, calling it Abm is “more” correct.
That said, there’s a quirk — E and Eb would both appear, and technically, E should be written as Fb for consistency. But let’s be honest, who calls it Fb with a straight face?
For clarity, it makes more sense to write the progression as G#m – F# – E – D#7, sidestepping the whole Fb debate altogether. That’s why I’ve used G#m for the chords and lyrics of Hit the Road Jack, as well as in the chord chart below.
Further down this guitar lesson, we practise this progression all over the neck using TAB — it’s not easy!
We also look at the Helen Reddy version, mainly because it’s so incredibly clever, but first, let’s take a look at the chords found in Hit The Road Jack.
The intro is a riff for which you’ll need TAB (below!). This riff returns as an instrumental section where it modulates up to Abm. Here, I don’t call it G#m as I did in the Ray Charles version.
Chorus (Helen Reddy)
Here’s where the magic happens. Instead of playing the descending progression over and over, she plays it half-time, like this:
| Gm F | Eb D7 |
This is followed by playing it at double tempo — all four chords in a bar — then going Gm – D7, like this:
| Gm F Eb D7 | Gm D7 |
I don’t know about you, but I reckon this is one of the best cover versions of a tune I’ve ever heard — she’s pretty much rewritten the song!
The verse is almost the same, just with a different length the second time. The outro moves II – V (Abm7 – Db9), and the TAB finds a really cool way to play this.
Here are chord charts for both versions:
Hit The Road Jack Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
If you want my chord chart in the key of G#m, you can download it as a static PDF or in the more flexible iReal Pro format. With iReal Pro, you can change the key to whatever suits you best.
Transposing is a great way to practise soloing over this classic progression, and iReal Pro even provides MIDI backing tracks in various styles. The real question is—how far down the road will you go with Jack?
- Hit The Road Jack chord chart PDF
- Hit The Road Jack iReal Pro
- Hit The Road Jack chord chart (HR) PDF
- Hit The Road Jack (HR) iReal Pro
Hit The Road Jack | TAB
Let’s start by playing the Ray Charles version all over the neck—this becomes challenging if you want to move around the fretboard in an improvised way.
Example 1
Individually, these shapes are easy—just make sure you can play them before attempting to move freely. We start with an Em shape, then go up to a C-shaped E, followed by an A-shaped D#7.
Example 2
Next, we repeat the exercise using strings 1–3. The second bar now has D shapes.
Example 3
Move up the neck and play a Cm shape first, then switch to A shapes in bar two.
Example 4
On strings 1–3, we start with a Dm shape, then move to A shapes again.
Example 5
Finally, start with an Am shape, then play E shapes in bar two.
If you follow this methodically for each shape, it may seem easy—but try playing along with the backing track while moving around the neck, and it becomes a much more challenging exercise!
Once you’ve mastered this, let’s move on to Helen Reddy’s version.
Hit The Road Jack | TAB ( Helen Reddy)
I can’t get enough of this incredible cover—it’s so clever!
Intro + Instrumental
Nothing immediately signals Hit The Road Jack, but that’s part of the fun!
The instrumental lick modulates up after two bars, like this:
Choruses
The chorus is where the magic happens. I’ve arranged it to combine the horn lines with the guitar part. Notice how she first plays it in half-time (two chords per bar) and then switches to four chords per bar—it’s brilliant!
This part is simple, starting with a horn stab. If you have a wah-wah pedal, add some in between the stabs—jam along with the recording for inspiration.
Verses
This part is really simple, just a horn stab at the beginning. If you have a wah-wah, do add some in between the stabs (jam along to recording to get inspiration)
The arrangement is different after the key change, like this:
Outro
Finally, the outro: notice how I move between Abm and Abm7, then for the Db9 I play the same inversion as in Kiss. The notes are almost identical—love it!
When you got your head around this TAB, try it with the backing track and chord chart a your only guide (2nd in the playlist above).
A cover of a cover
Hit the Road Jack was released as a single by Ray Charles in 1961—but he didn’t write it.
The song was penned by Percy Mayfield a year earlier and sent to record executive Art Rupe, who had known Ray from his early days recording with Guitar Slim. Rupe, a key figure in rhythm and blues, also helped launch Little Richard’s career, bringing hits like Tutti Frutti and Long Tall Sally to the world.
A massive success, Hit the Road Jack reached #1 in the U.S., Sweden, and New Zealand, becoming one of Ray Charles’s signature songs. Its call-and-response style—famously delivered by The Raelettes, with Ray answering—has kept it a staple of soul and Motown cover bands’ setlists for more than seven decades.
With its deceptively simple chord progression, it’s easy to memorise in seconds… until you discover the Helen Reddy version, which is just incredible. In my opinion, it’s one of the best cover versions ever recorded.
Hit The Road Jack Chords: Continue Learning
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- Money (That’s What I Want)
- Shake A Tail Feather
