My Guy | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: Bb bass line :|| Cm7 Dm7 |
Verse 1
| Bb Bb6 | Bb Bb6 | Bb Bb6 | Bb Bb6 |
Nothing you could say could tear me away from my guy.
| Bb Bb6 | Bb Bb6 | Bb Bb6 | Bb Bb6 | D7 D D7 | D7 |
Nothing you could do ’cause I’m stuck like glue to my guy.
Bridge 1
| Cm7 F7 | Cm7 F |
I’m sticking to my guy like a stamp to a letter,
| Cm7 F7 | Cm7 N.C |
like birds of a feather, we stick together.
Turnaround 1
| Bb G | C7 F | Bb Bb6 Bb | Cm7 Dm7 |
I’m tellin’ you from the start I can’t be torn apart from my guy.
Verse 2
Nothing you could do could make me untrue to my guy (my guy).
Nothing you could buy could make me tell a lie to my guy (my guy, my guy, my guy).
Bridge 2
I gave my guy my word of honor,
to be faithful and I’m gonna,
Turnaround 2
you best be believing I won’t be deceiving my guy.
Bridge 3
| Cm7 F7 | Cm7 F7 |
As a matter of opinion, I think he’s tops,
| Cm7 F7 | Bb Bb6 Bb |
my opinion is he’s the cream of the crop.
Middle 8
| Gm7 Dm | Gm7 Dm | C7 | F |
As a matter of taste to be exact, he’s my ideal as a matter of fact.
Verse 3
| Bb Bb6 | Bbmaj7 Bb6 | Bb Bb6 | Bbmaj7 Bb6 |
No muscle-bound man could take my hand from my guy (my guy).
| Bb Bb6 | Bbmaj7 Bb6 | D7 D | D7 D D6 |
No handsome face could ever take the place of my guy (my guy, my guy, my guy).
Bridge 4 (as bridge 1)
He may not be a movie star,
but when it comes to being happy, we are.
Turnaround 3
There’s not a man today who could take me away from my guy.
Breakdown (as intro)
||: Bb bass line :|| Cm7 Dm7 |
Verse 4 (as verse 1)
No muscle-bound man (muscle-bound man) could take my hand from my guy (my guy).
No handsome face (handsome face) could ever take the place of my guy (my guy, my guy, my guy).
Bridge 5 (as bridge 1)
He may not be a movie star,
but when it comes to being happy, we are.
Turnaround 4
There’s not a man today who could take me away from my guy. What you say?
Outro
||: Bb G | C7 F | Bb Bb6 Bb | Cm7 Dm7 :||
There’s not a man today who could take me away from my guy. Tell me more!
There’s not a man today who could take me away from my guy. What’s that?
There’s not a man today who could take me away from my guy.
My Guy Chords: Learn the progressions
What key we are in when playing My Guy is obvious already during the intro as only in one part of the diatonic chords do we have two minor chords a tone apart.
The intro is a major pentatonic bass line and the chords II and III.
||: Bb bass line :|| Cm7 Dm7 |
Next, we manipulate that I chord with 6 extensions before we go to the IIIx chord as we play the verse.
||: Bb (I) Bb6 | Bb Bb6 :||x4
| D7 (IIIx) D D7 | D7 |
In verse 3, I decided to replace that second Bb with a maj7, like this:
||: Bb Bb6 | Bbmaj7 Bb6 :||x4
| D7 (IIIx) D D7 | D7 |
No matter if we play the maj7 or not, the D7 (chord IIIx) takes us to the bridge which is a II – V.
||: Cm7 F7 :|| x3
| Cm7 N.C |
The final section is a turnaround with two new chords, a VIx and IIx.
| Bb (I) G (VI) | C7 (IIx) F (V) | Bb (I) Bb6 Bb | Cm7 (II) Dm7 (III) |
Compare this with Baby Won’t You Please Come Home’s chords, it’s a classic movement where those VI and II chords can be either minor or major.
Here’s a chord chart I made for you.
My Guy Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: My Guy Chord Chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to that file: My Guy iReal Pro.
If you have the app, you can quickly change the key should your singer want to last minute. You could also use it to practice My Guy’s chords in different keys, always a good idea with any tune you learn.
In the course, we play My Guy’s chords all over the neck, below is a preview of how this is done.
Just imagine if you could do this in an improvised way, in any key. What would that do for your playing in general?
My Guy TAB | Course Preview
There are some jazzy-sounding chords to discover when we play My Guy, more so than in your average early Motown tune.
Along these chords, you can fit licks in. A great way to work out how to do this is to first transcribe licks from the original recording, and then develop them.
In the course, we go deep and play the chords in all areas using different rhythms so we can play freely anywhere on the neck.
With this as the foundation, fitting licks in and then going back to playing the chords is easier.
Above, you get a preview of a course lesson in the form of a TAB loop, try it already now to see what learning guitar with Spytunes is like.
Here’s the TAB for what you hear in the video.
This first example used the G shape of a Bb chord, in example 2, we’ll move up and play an E shape and so on until we cover the entire fretboard, connecting barre chords.
In the next few steps, we work on the bridge, turnaround, middle 8, and the instrumental section, using play-along loops and TAB, just like you saw above for the verse chords.
You’ll get many variations on how you can play each section, complete with TAB and loops, ultimately making it possible for you to improvise your guitar part when you play it with the live band backing track in the final step.
Here’s a link to the 8 step-by-step guitar lessons: My Guy – Guitar Lessons with TAB.
My Guy was one of Motown’s first big hits!
My Guy is a smash hit by Motown’s first female superstar Mary Wells. Reaching #1 in the U.S., it also topped the charts in New Zealand, reached #3 in Australia, and #5 in the U.K. during 1964.
Written by Smokey Robinson, it’s a great example of the early, sweeter, and more innocent sound of Motown. My Guy is still played by the working Motown band seven decades later, usually in the first set before things get more hectic.
Being a young, first female star on the up-and-coming record label must have all gone to Mary’s head as she walked away from the success Berry Gordy had set up for her, thinking she could do this anywhere.
Before she left she only did a few duets with Marvin Gaye before signing a new deal with 20th Century Fox in 1965, thinking she’d soon be a movie star as well.
Motown didn’t sit around and cry about it, they had plenty of other artists and groups to record in Martha and the Vandellas, and The Supremes.
There was no shortage of female singers to team up with Marvin as Tammi Terrell and Kim Weston did even better than Mary had.
On her new label, Mary never got any big movie roles or hits written for her, her single My Guy was the only big hit.
My Guy Chords | Related Pages
My Guy | 8 Step-by-step Guitar Lessons + TAB
There are more jazzy-sounding chords to discover when we play My Guy.
During the steps, you’ll get many variations on how you can play each section, ultimately making it possible for you to improvise your guitar part when you play it with the band in the final step.
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
The Funk Brothers tunes
Motown’s house band, The Funk Brothers was the most successful group of studio musicians of all time.
Their contributions can be heard on Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Dancing In The Street, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, My Girl, and My Guy.
The Funk Brothers on the web
Mary Wells tunes
Mary Wells was a female superstar for early Motown and an important part of the label’s success. Smokey Robinson and Motown’s main songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland all wrote for her.
Things started to go sour when Berry Gordy started prioritizing other singers.
Mary Wells on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about My Guy 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.
