Chords + Lyrics | Mamma Mia
Intro
||: D5 | Daug :|| x4
Verse 1
| D | D | G (G6) | G (Gmaj7) |
I’ve been cheated by you since I don’t know when.
| D | D | G (G6) | G (Gmaj7) |
So I made up my mind, it must come to an end.
| D | D | Daug | Daug |
Look at me now, will I ever learn? I don’t know how but I suddenly lose control.
| G | G | A | A G D/F# |
There’s a fire within my soul.
| A | A5 G D/F# |
Just one look and I can hear a bell ring.
| A5 | A5 |
One more look and I forget everything, o-o-o-oh.
Chorus 1
| D5 | D5 (G/D) |
Mamma mia, here I go again.
| G/D G6/D G/D | G/D Gmaj7/D |
My my, how can I resist you?
| D5 | D5 (G/D) |
Mamma mia, does it show again?
| G/D G6/D G/D | G/D Gmaj7/D |
My my, just how much I’ve missed you.
Chorus tag 1
| D5 | A/C# |
Yes, I’ve been brokenhearted.
| Bm | A |
Blue since the day we parted.
| C/G G | Em A |
Why, why, did I ever let you go?
| D | Bm |
Mamma mia, now I really know.
| C/G G | Em7 A |
My my, I could never let you go.
Instrumental 1
| D | Daug |
Verse 2
I’ve been angry and sad about the things that you do.
I can’t count all the times that I’ve told you we’re through.
And when you go, when you slam the door.
I think you know, that you won’t be away too long.
You know that I’m not that strong.
Just one look and I can hear a bell ring.
One more look and I forget everything, o-o-o-oh.
Chorus 2
Mamma mia, here I go again.
My my, how can I resist you?
Mamma mia, does it show again?
My my, just how much I’ve missed you.
Tag 2
Yes, I’ve been brokenhearted.
Blue since the day we parted.
Why, why did I ever let you go?
Mamma mia, even if I say.
Bye bye, leave me now or never.
Mamma mia, it’s a game we play.
Bye bye, doesn’t mean forever.
Middle 8
| D5 | D5 |
Mamma mia, here I go again.
| G C/G G | G D/G |
My my, how can I resist you?
| D5 | D5 |
Mamma mia, does it show again?
| G C/G G | G D/G |
My my, just how much I’ve missed you.
Tag 3
Yes, I’ve been brokenhearted.
Blue since the day we parted.
Why, why did I ever let you go.
Mamma mia, now I really know.
My my, I could never let you go.
Instrumental 2 (Outro)
||: D | Daug :||
Mamma Mia Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Mamma Mia. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, 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 sharp to 442Hz. In the backing tracks, I’ve done this job for you by tuning it to 440Hz.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
The chord progression throughout Mamma Mia is diatonic to the key of D, and perhaps that’s how it began before the writers felt it needed a little extra edge.
If that’s the case, they chose to put that edge right at the top of the tune, and by doing so allowed the rest of the song to stay firmly within the diatonic framework — genius!
Intro + Instrumental
That edge comes from taking the I chord and making it augmented — raising the 5th. Put this on a loop using strings, answer it with a classic guitar lick in the relative B minor blues scale, and you have a great opener.
The chords underpinning this bold statement are simply:
||: D5 | Daug :||
Verse
The verse is super basic, moving from I to IV with a few extensions:
| D | D | G (G6) | G (Gmaj7) |
Next, the intro chords return, now with a new guitar lick targeting that #5 over these chords:
| D | D | Daug | Daug |
This is followed by IV and V, using the I chord with its 3rd in the bass as a pivot:
| G | G | A | A G D/F# |
| A | A5 G D/F# | A5 | A5 |
Apart from the guitar lick itself, it can be tricky to find something effective to play here. Luckily, I’ve designed some TAB to get you going, keep scrolling to find it.
Chorus + Middle 8
The chorus is a breakdown section pivoting between chords I and IV. I feel we should take responsibility here and find a part (yes, I’ve got TAB for you!), rather than just stop playing and angrily look towards the keyboard player.
Here are the chords I feel work best:
||: D5 | D5 (G/D)|
| G/D G6/D G/D | G/D Gmaj7/D :||
Later on, there’s a variation on this idea during what I’ve labelled a middle 8. The chords change in a subtle way:
||: D5 | D5 |
| G C/G G | G D/G :||
There’s no movement to G6 here — it’s replaced by C/G — and Gmaj7/D becomes D/G.
Chorus Tag
The big release in this tune is what I like to label the chorus tag (“Yes, I’ve been broken-hearted…”):
| D5 | A/C# |
| Bm | A |
| C/G G | Em A |
| D | Bm |
| C/G G | Em7 A |
I really like how the chords repeat here, especially in bar seven when we move from D to Bm.
Once you can play my custom-designed TAB — which makes this work in a band setting without all the original production — test yourself by using only this chord chart as you play along with ABBA using my backing tracks.
Mamma Mia Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
You can download my Mamma Mia chord chart as a PDF, or in the industry-standard iReal Pro format, where you can change the key and alter the layout.
Mamma Mia | TAB
Let’s go through all sections of this guaranteed party anthem so you can play it with your band, some of these parts I’ve designed myself, some are just transcribed.
Intro
I love the intro, it’s so simple! All we do is move from the 5th to the #5, putting the new note an 8th early, like this:
Following the awesome D – Daug play executed by strings on the original recording, we get an actual guitar lick, ensure the pull-offs are smooth.
Verse
The next section is the the verse. Here we don’t have much to go on so I added some chord stabs and doubled the keys part, taking a few hits out.
If you play everything in the intro and what you see here in the verse, you could play this with just bass and drums!
Chorus
The chorus is another empty part which, if you have an ambitious keyboard player, you could just leave it to them. Or, you could play this:
Experiment with playing this using just your fingers or with a pick. If you don’t have keyboards on the gig, this will work nicely as a breakdown section.
Tag
The chorus tag is the release after all that tension and breakdown malarkey.
I’ve opted for big sweeping rhythms here rather than transcribe the lead lines. Again, this means you can play it without keyboards or just add more power to the arrangement if you’re not in a trio.
Middle 8
There’s a looped version of the chorus towards the end of the song, although the chords are slightly different. I’ve kept the last idea, only adjusting the chords, notice how it doesn’t change on the 4+ of bar two anymore. It’s also a C/G, not a G6.
When you can play all this TAB, return to the backing track and use just the chord chart to see if you can put it all together.
Mamma Mia Chords: Continue Learning
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