Jimmy Mack | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| Ebm | Gbmaj7 | Dbmaj7 | Gb |
Jimmy Mack, Jimmy. Oh, Jimmy Mack, when are you comin’ back.
| Ebm7 | Gbmaj7 | Dbmaj7 | Gb Ab |
Jimmy Mack, Jimmy. Oh, Jimmy Mack, when are you comin’ back.
Verse 1
| Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb | Gb Ab |
My arms are missing you, my lips feel the same way too.
| Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb |
I tried so hard to be true, like I promised I’d do.
| Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb |
But this guy keeps comin’ around, he’s tryin’ to wear my resistance down.
Chorus 1
| Ebm | Emb7 | Db | Gb |
Hey, Jimmy, Jimmy. Oh, Jimmy Mack, when are you comin’ back.
| Ebm7 | Gbmaj7 | Dbmaj7 | Gb Ab |
Jimmy, Jimmy. Oh, Jimmy Mack, you better hurry back.
Verse 2
| Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb | Gb Ab |
He calls me on the phone, about three times a day.
| Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb |
Now my heart doesn’t listen to, what he has to say.
| Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb |
But this loneliness I have within is reaching out to be his friend.
Chorus 2
| Ebm | Emb7 | Db | Gb |
Hey, Jimmy, Jimmy. Oh, Jimmy Mack, when are you comin’ back.
| Ebm7 | Gbmaj7 | Dbmaj7 | Gb Ab |
Jimmy, Jimmy. Oh, Jimmy Mack, you better hurry back.
Chorus tag 1
| Db Gb | Db Gb |
Need your loving (Jimmy Mack, won’t hurry back).
| Db Gb | Gb Ab |
Need your loving (Jimmy Mack, you better hurry back).
Solo
| Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb |
| Ebm | Emb7 Ab | Db Gb | Gb Ab |
Verse 3
| Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb |
I wanna say, I’m not getting any stronger, I can’t hold out very much longer.
| Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb | Db Gb |
Trying hard, to be true. But Jimmy he talks just as sweet as you.
Chorus 3
| Ebm | Gbmaj7 | Dbmaj7 | Gb |
Hey, Jimmy, Jimmy. Oh, Jimmy Mack, when are you comin’ back.
| Ebm7 | Gbmaj7 | Dbmaj7 | Gb Ab |
Jimmy, can’t you hear me Jimmy. Oh, Jimmy Mack, you better hurry back.
Chorus tag 2
| Db Gb | Db Gb | Ebm | Ebm7 |
Need your loving (Hurry back, Jimmy Mack). Need your loving (Hurry, hurry).
Outro
||: Db Gb :||
Hey Jimmy Mack, you better hurry back (Hurry back, Jimmy Mack).
Hey Jimmy Mack, when are you coming back (Hurry back, Jimmy Mack).
Oh, I’m not getting any stronger (Hurry back, Jimmy Mack, oh).
I can’t hold out very much longer (Hurry back, Jimmy Mack, oh).
Jimmy Mack when are you coming back (Hurry back, Jimmy Mack, oh).
Need your loving. Oh Jimmy Mack (Hurry back, Jimmy Mack, oh).
Jimmy Mack Guitar Lesson | Course Preview
Jimmy Mack is a 1967 single by Martha and the Vandellas.
Written by Holland-Dozier-Holland, it would become the group’s 2nd most successful song, after Dancing In The Street.
Below, you find an excerpt from the course, discussing chord substitution for the intro of Jimmy Mack.
The path to success when it comes to playing rhythm parts is to know your CAGED shapes so well that you can move around the fretboard in an improvised way.
In Jimmy Mack, we’re in the key of Db, because this is a difficult key for guitar players, taking the lesson below will be a great test to see how well you actually know your chord shapes, especially when you start substituting.
Jimmy Mack’s chords, progressions, and TAB
Let’s start working on the intro for Jimmy Mack. First, we must work out the key and the Roman Numerals.
In the key of C, the chords would be: Cmaj7 (I) Dm7 (II) Em7 (III) Fmaj7 (IV) G7 (V) Am7 (VI) Bm7b5 (VII)
In the key of Db (one fret up), we get: Dbmaj7 (I) Ebm7 (II) Fm7 (III) Gbmaj7 (IV) Ab7 (V) Bbm7 (VI) Cm7b5 (VII)
The chorus and intro of Jimmy Mack use the chords II – IIm7 – I – IV (V).
The substitutions used are:
- Gb – instead of Ebm7
- Gbmaj7 – Instead of Ebm9
- Fm – instead of Dbmaj7
Instead of trying to fully understand how to do this theoretically, it’s a better idea to just get to work and do it. Below there are six examples implementing chord substitution using Jimmy Mack’s intro, all over the neck.
Practice these and then start moving around in an improvised way.
In example 1, we play them like this.
To turn these chords into a guitar part, we can just pick three strings to play them on and strum in a triplet rhythm, up until beat 4. Look out for the ties and slides and make sure you can play like the TAB says before you start finding variations.
In the course, we next move to a new area of the fretboard. It’s very important that you can play any chord anywhere, especially if you’re going to substitute chords!
Jimmy Mack’s 8 guitar lessons in the course
Jimmy Mack is your introduction to chord substitutions, this is something we’ll do a lot more of in the future.
Once you get it you’ll see that we’ve opened a can of worms here. You can easily spend the rest of your life chord substituting, especially if you play Jazz.
In total, there are 8 step-by-step lessons for Jimmy Mack available. Here are links to each lesson in the course (members only):
- Step 1 – Bars & Beats
- Step 2 – Intro
- Step 3 – Chorus
- Step 4 – Verse
- Step 5 – Verse & Chorus
- Step 6 – Solo
- Step 7 – The complete song with TAB
- Step 8 – Live band backing track
Become a member today and get unlimited access to all my guitar courses, the SEPR practice route, and the eBook Spytunes Method – You can learn guitar!
Jimmy Mack chords | Related pages
Intermediate Electric
The intermediate electric tunes will help you with learning the CAGED system all over the fretboard, both for chords and pentatonic scales.
Learn these Motown/Soul classics, and you’ll not just improve dramatically but also gain yourself a repertoire.
Five similar tunes
Martha and the Vandellas
Martha met her Vandellas as she was a secretary at Motown’s hit factory where her soon-to-be backing singers sang for Marvin Gaye.
Together they had seven years of hits including Jimmy Mack, Nowhere To Run, and perhaps Motown’s biggest hit of them all, Dancing In The Street.
Martha and The Vandellas on the web
Motown & Soul
You can learn how to play these Motown & Soul tunes, and in doing so, gain yourself a repertoire so you can jam with, or even join a working band.
Study these tunes in-depth and you will map out the fretboard, master the CAGED system, and learn how to design a rhythm guitar part that works in a band.
