I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| D | Gm/D | D6/9 | D9 |
| G | Gm | G/A A G/A | A D/A Dsus4/A |
||: D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D :||
Verse 1
| D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
Wake up in the morning with a head like, “What ya done?”
| G Gsus4 G | G Gsus4 G |
This used to be the life, but I don’t need another one.
| D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
You like cuttin’ up and carrying on, you wear them gowns.
| G Gsus4 G | G Gsus4 G |
So how come I feel so lonely when you’re up getting down?
Bridge 1
| Bm | F#m |
So I’ll play along when I hear that special song.
| Am7 | G |
I’m gonna be the one who gets it right.
| Bm | F#m |
You’d better move when you’re swayin’ round the room.
| Am7 | G |
Looks like the magic’s only ours tonight.
Chorus 1
| D (G/D) | D (G/D) |
But I don’t feel like dancin’ when the old Joanna plays.
| G (Gsus4)| G (Gsus4) |
My heart could take a chance, but my two feet can’t find a way.
| A | C G |
You’d think that I could muster up a little soft-shoe gentle sway.
| D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
But I don’t feel like dancin’, no sir, no dancin’ today.
Chorus tag 1
| D (G/D) | D (G/D) |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, even if I find nothin’ better to do.
| G (Gsus4)| G (Gsus4) |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, why’d you pick a tune when I’m not in the mood?
| A | C G | D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, I’d rather be home with the one in the bed till dawn, with you.
Instrumental 1
| Gm | C | Gm | C |
| Gm | C C# | D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
Verse 2
| D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
Cities come and cities go, just like the old empires.
| G Gsus4 G | G Gsus4 G |
When all you do is change your clothes and call that versatile.
| D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
You got so many colors, make a blind man so confused.
| G Gsus4 G | G Gsus4 G |
Then why can’t I keep up when you’re the only thing I lose?
Bridge 2
| Bm | F#m |
So I’ll just pretend that I know which way to bend.
| Am7 | G |
And I’m gonna tell the whole world that you’re mine.
| Bm | F#m |
Please understand, when I see you clap your hands.
| Am7 | G |
If you stick around I’m sure that I’ll be fine.
Chorus 2
| D (G/D) | D (G/D) |
But I don’t feel like dancin’ when the old Joanna plays.
| G Gsus4 G | G Gsus4 G |
My heart could take a chance, but my two feet can’t find a way.
| A | C G |
You’d think that I could muster up a little soft-shoe gentle sway.
| D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
But I don’t feel like dancin’, no sir, no dancin’ today.
Chorus tag 2
| D (G/D) | D (G/D) |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, even if I find nothin’ better to do.
| G Gsus4 G | G Gsus4 G |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, why’d you pick a tune when I’m not in the mood?
| A | C G | D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, I’d rather be home with the one in the bed till dawn, with you.
Instrumental 2
||: Bm | F#m | Am7 | G :||
Middle 8
| D | D(#5) | D6 | D7 |
You can’t make me dance around but your two-step makes my chest pound.
| G | Gm | A | N.C | N.C |
Just lay me down as you float away into the shimmer light.
Chorus 3
| D (G/D) | D (G/D) |
But I don’t feel like dancin’ when the old Joanna plays.
| G Gsus4 G | G Gsus4 G |
My heart could take a chance, but my two feet can’t find a way.
| A | C G |
You’d think that I could muster up a little soft-shoe gentle sway.
| D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
But I don’t feel like dancin’, no sir, no dancin’ today.
Chorus tag 3
| D (G/D) | D (G/D) |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, even if I find nothin’ better to do.
| G Gsus4 G | G Gsus4 G |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, why’d you pick a tune when I’m not in the mood?
| A | C G | D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, I’d rather be home with the one in the bed till dawn, with you.
Chorus tag 4
| D (G/D) | D (G/D) |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, even if I find nothin’ better to do.
| G Gsus4 G | G Gsus4 G |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, why’d you pick a tune when I’m not in the mood?
| A | C G | D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, I’d rather be home with the one in the bed till dawn, with you.
Outro
||: D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D :||
I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ Chords: Learn the progressions
Whenever a song is written by a great pianist, we tend to get some very clever extensions, this is clearly the case with the chords for I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’.
Let’s break each section down, starting with the guitar intro, which goes like this:
| D | Gm/D | D6/9 | D9 |
| G | Gm | G/A A G/A | A D/A Dsus4/A |
This is mainly a play on the I – IVm movement. The D6/9 followed by D9 sounds great too. When we finally go to G, it is followed by Gm (IV – IVm). Next, the G/A – A is a classic movement that could be described as G – A11 as well.
Compare the last part with Never Too Much and Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough, the latter a song that must have been played as a reference track when the band wrote this.
Next, let’s look at the piano riff, here’s how I’d like to describe the chords.
||: D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D :||
This is very difficult to fit in on guitar, your best bet is probably to play most of these as open-position chords. If you don’t want to, instead just pick two strings and find the most important notes.
As the verse starts, the riff remains, when we go to G we don’t translate the entire package, instead, it’s just G and Gsus4.
The last line of the verse is this:
| A | C G | D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
Next up, we have an extremely clever bridge section which goes like this:
| Bm (VI) | F#m (III) | Am7 (Vm) | G (IV) |
The Bm is chord VI, F#m is III, G is IV. Leaving us to ponder the Am7. I feel this is best seen as the C was earlier, a bVIIx, but with the V chord in the bass. You could also describe it as a Vm as well.
As the first part of the chorus comes in “But I don’t feel like dancin’ when the old Joanna…” we calm the riff down to just D and Dsus4, just like the G had done earlier. This gives us more space for the vocal.
Other than that, it’s the same chords as we had in the verse really, and so it remains for the next chorus “Don’t feel like dancin’, dancin’, even if I find nothin’ better…”
After the first chorus, we get a new instrumental section that actually has changed the key. Goes like this:
| Gm | C | Gm | C |
| Gm | C C# | D G/D D | D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D |
A minor chord with a major chord a fourth up is always a II – V. So this must be a II – V in F. F is the relative major of Dm, so what we have here is a modal interchange from D – Dm.
The next time we get an instrumental section, it’s using the bridge chords. This is followed by yet another section, which we must call a M8, which goes like this:
| D | D(#5) | D6 | D7 |
| G | Gm | A | N.C | N.C |
We start with chromatically manipulating the D chord, in a similar way to how Ray Charles does it with Georgia On My Mind.
This is then followed by another IV – IVm movement which takes us to V and then rests.
Now we are set up for the chorus where we can proudly proclaim that we’re definitely not going to be dancing – yeah right!
I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ was co-written with Elton John!
With echoes of Elton John in general, Stayin’ Alive by Bee Gees, The Four Seasons December 63 (Oh What A Night), You Make Me Feel Like Dancing by Leo Sayer, and George Michael’s Faith in particular, I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ is an obvious smash hit by LGBTQ-friendly Scissor Sisters.
The Elton John influence is not just an influence, Elton actually wrote the song with the band which was released in 2006 as a single from the album Ta-Dah. The song was their biggest hit as it got into the top 10 in over twenty countries.
The chords are very piano-like (Elton!) and took me a while to work out. The difference between a Dsus4 and a G/D may seem small but it does matter if you like chords as much as I do.
You must study I Don’t Feel Like Dancing’s chords and lyrics carefully to understand how this modern Disco hit was penned.
I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ Chords | Related Pages
Five similar tunes with chords and lyrics
- Build Me Up Buttercup chords by The Foundations
- December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night!) chords by The Four Seasons
- Forget You chords by CeeLo Green
- Hooked On A Feeling chords by Blue Swede
- Young Hearts Run Free chords by Candi Staton
Scissor Sisters tunes
Their 2004 debut album did well with three singles, although it was the album itself that climbed the highest in the charts.
Scissor Sisters’ best tunes include Take Your Mama, Mary, and their biggest hit, I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’.
Scissor Sisters on the web
Dance, Disco & Funk
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ 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.