Jailhouse Rock chords

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Jailhouse Rock | Chords + Lyrics (tune down 1/2)

Intro

| N.C Eb | E | E Eb | E | E Eb |

Verse 1

| E | E Eb |
The warden threw a party in the county jail.
| E | E Eb |
The prison band was there and they began to wail.
| E | E Eb |
The band was jumpin’ and the joint began to swing.
| E N.C | N.C |
You should’ve heard those knocked-out jailbirds sing.

Chorus 1

| A (A6) | A (A6) | E (E6) | E (E6) |
Let’s rock. Everybody, let’s rock.
| B (B6) | A (A6) |
Everybody in the whole cell block.
| E (E6) | E Eb |
Was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock.

Verse 2

| E | E Eb |
Spider Murphy played the tenor saxophone.
| E | E Eb |
Little Joe was blowin’ on the slide trombone.
| E | E Eb |
The drummer boy from Illinois went crash, boom, bang.
| E N.C | N.C |
The whole rhythm section was a purple gang.

Chorus 2

| A (A6) | A (A6) | E (E6) | E (E6) |
Let’s rock. Everybody, let’s rock.
| B (B6) | A (A6) |
Everybody in the whole cell block.
| E (E6) | E Eb |
Was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock.

Verse 3

| E | E Eb |
Number 47 said to number three.
| E | E Eb |
“You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see.
| E | E Eb |
I sure would be delighted with your company.
| E N.C | N.C |
Come on and do the Jailhouse Rock with me”.

Chorus 3

| A (A6) | A (A6) | E (E6) | E (E6) |
Let’s rock. Everybody, let’s rock.
| B (B6) | A (A6) |
Everybody in the whole cell block.
| E (E6) | E Eb |
Was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock, Rock, Rock.

Solo

| A A6 | A7 A6 | E E6 | E7 E6 |
| B B6 | A A6 | E E6 | E7 Eb |

Verse 4

| E | E Eb |
Sad Sack was sittin’ on a block of stone.
| E | E Eb |
Way over in the corner weepin’ all alone.
| E | E Eb |
The warden said, “Hey, buddy, don’t you be no square.
| E N.C | N.C |
If you can’t find a partner, use a wooden chair”.

Chorus 4

| A (A6) | A (A6) | E (E6) | E (E6) |
Let’s rock. Everybody, let’s rock.
| B (B6) | A (A6) |
Everybody in the whole cell block.
| E (E6) | E Eb |
Was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock.

Verse 5

| E | E Eb |
Shifty Henry said to Bugs, “For Heaven’s sake.
| E | E Eb |
No one’s lookin’, now’s the chance to make a break”.
| E | E Eb |
Bugsy turned to Shifty and he said, “Nix nix.
| E N.C | N.C |
I wanna stick around a while and get my kicks”.

Chorus 6

| A (A6) | A (A6) | E (E6) | E (E6) |
Let’s rock. Everybody, let’s rock.
| B (B6) | A (A6) |
Everybody in the whole cell block.
| E (E6) | (E E6) |
Was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock.

Outro

||: E (E6) | (E E6) :||
||: Dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock :|| to fade

Jailhouse Rock’s chords, progressions, and TAB

On the original recording, the band is tuned down to Eb. Should you want to play along with that, you can use my free online chromatic tuner to get to Eb.

Once you’re in tune with Elvis and the gang, you’ll soon discover how there are two sections in Jailhouse Rock, let’s call them verse and chorus.

The verse uses only a C shaped Eb – E, but ignores the root on string 5, leave that to the bass player! Looks like this in TAB.

The chorus is played using a bass line of 8th notes (bass player is playing 1/4 notes).

As you can see if you study the intervals, it’s similar to how you honky tonk (Chuck Berry!) athough instead we now play the arpeggio, adding the 6.

Finally, for the solo, let’s look at how the bass modifies this honky tonk bass line concept into including the b7 a well, looks like this in TAB.

Jailhouse Rock chords and TAB solo bass line.

Should you want to play all this in the same key as Blues Brothers, and many covers bands do this, tune back up to standard tuning, then transpose all of Jailhouse Rock’s chords to the key of D. This s what you’ll end up with:

Jailhouse Rock verse chords in D:

| N.C C# ||: D | D C# :|| D N.C | N.C |

Jailhouse Rock chorus chords in D:

| G (G6) | G (G6) | D (D6) | D (D6) |
| A (A6) | G (G6) | D (D6) | D C# |