Mr. Big Stuff | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: Eb | Ab Bb Ab :||
Oh, yeah. Oh.
Chorus 1
||: Eb | Ab Bb Ab :||
Mr. Big Stuff. Who do you think you are?
Mr. Big Stuff. You’re never gonna get my love.
Verse 1
||: Eb | Ab :||
Now because you wear, all those fancy clothes (oh, yeah).
And have a big fine car, oh (ooh) yes, you do now.
Do you think I can afford, to give you my love? (oh, yeah).
| Eb | Ab Bb Ab |
You think you’re higher, than every (ooh) star above.
Chorus 2
Mr. Big Stuff. Who do you think you are?
Mr. Big Stuff. You’re never gonna get my love.
Verse 2
Now I know all the girls, I’ve seen you with.
I know you broke their hearts one after another now, bit by bit.
You made ’em cry, many poor girls cry.
When they try to keep you happy, they just try to keep you satisfied.
Chorus 3
Mr. Big Stuff, tell me, tell me. Who do you think you are?
Mr. Big Stuff. You’re never gonna get my love.
Instrumental
| Cm | F7 | Ab | Bb Ab |
Verse 3
I’d rather give my love to a poor guy that has a love that’s true (oh, yeah).
Than to be fooled around (ooh) and get hurt by you.
‘Cause when I give my love, I want love in return (oh, yeah).
Now I know this is a lesson Mr. Big Stuff (ooh) you haven’t learned.
Outro chorus
||: Eb | Ab Bb Ab :||
Mr. Big Stuff, tell me. Who do you think you are?
Mr. Big Stuff. You’re never gonna get my love.
Mr. Big Stuff. You’re never gonna break my heart.
Mr. Big Stuff. You’re never gonna make me cry.
Mr. Big Stuff, tell me. Just who do you think you are?
Mr. Big Stuff. You’re never gonna get my love.
Mr. Big Stuff. You’re never gonna break my heart.
Mr. Big Stuff. You’re never gonna make me cry.
Mr. Big Stuff, tell me, tell me. Just who do you think you are?
Mr. Big Stuff. You’re never gonna get my love.
Mr. Big Stuff Chords: Learn the progressions
Apart from being a great tune, Mr. Big Stuff is also very easy to learn. A great idea if a song is to cross over from being played on the radio to by working bands.
The chorus is also the intro and outro, the verse is almost identical, we just don’t go to the Bb – Ab chords at the end of the verse until the final line.
The instrumental section goes to the relative minor, Cm, although instead of being chord VI, it’s II as it’s followed by an F7. This is a common jazz/funk trick and in the case of Mr. Big Stuff, it looks like this:
| Cm (II) | F7 (V) | Ab (bVIIx) | Bb (I) Ab |
In this way, we have had a modal interchange (Eb is Ionian and then Lydian). You could also see it as if we’ve been bridging the two keys of Eb (chorus, verse) and Bb (instrumental section). These two keys only have one note that differs.
I’ve designed some TAB for how to play this just like on the original recording. Here’s a link to the TAB lesson: Mr. Big Stuff – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Armed with the knowledge of how to exactly play Mr. Big Stuff’s chords, you need a chord chart, mainly to give you the structure. Here’s one I made for you.
Mr. Big Stuff Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Mr. Big Stuff Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Mr. Big Stuff iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Mr. Big Stuff – Jean Knight’s signature song!
Released in 1971 on the label Stax (Booker T. & The M.G.’s was the house band but didn’t play on this), Jean Knight‘s super-cool Mr. Big Stuff was a massive success, selling 2 million copies in the U.S. alone.
As Jean’s signature song and only hit, it has stayed in popular culture through radio play, being featured in ads, and most importantly, played by DJs, and Soul/Funk bands at parties ever since.
You’d think there’d be more to come from Jean Knight after she had “found the formula” and Mr. Big Stuff is seemingly so easy, can’t she just do more of the same?
I guess the fact that she couldn’t proves that it’s extremely difficult to write hits, even when there are only a few chords!
Mr. Big Stuff Chords | Related Pages
Mr. Big Stuff | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Mr. Big Stuff by Jean Knight using TAB and chord analysis.
||: Eb | Ab Bb Ab :||
Mr. Big Stuff. Who do you think you are?
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Jean Knight tunes
Starting out singing at her cousin’s bar, Jean Knight soon attracted interest from bands, producers, and eventually the record label Stax.
Knight’s best-known tune is her signature song Mr. Big Stuff but the album has some other cool tunes as well worth checking out.
Jean Knight on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Mr. Big Stuff chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
