Piece of My Heart | Chords + Lyrics (Janis Joplin)
Intro
| F#m | A B |
| C#m | B | D | B |
| B | B7 |
Well, come on, come on, come on, come on.
Verse 1
| E A | B A |
Didn’t I make you feel like you
| E A | B A |
were the only man? Well, yeah!
| E A | B |
And didn’t I give you nearly everything that a woman possibly can? Honey, you know I did.
Bridge 1
| C#m | B |
(Oh) And each time I tell myself that I, well I think I’ve had enough.
| D | B |
(Oh) But what I’m gonna show you, baby, that a woman can be tough.
| B | B7 |
I want you to come on, come on, come on, come on and.
Chorus 1
| E A | B |
Take it! Take another little piece of my heart now, baby (oh, oh).
| E A | B |
(Break it) Break another little bit of my heart now, darling, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (oh, oh).
| E A | B A# |
(Have a) Have another little piece of my heart now, baby.
| A | A E/G# F#m E | E A | B A |
You know you got it, if it makes you feel good. Lord, yes indeed.
Verse 2
You’re out on the streets looking good and baby deep down in your heart.
I guess you know that it ain’t right. Never, never, never, never, never.
Never hear me when I cry at night. Babe, and I cry all the time.
Bridge 2
(Oh) But each time I tell myself that I, well I can’t stand the pain
(Oh) But when you hold me in your arms, I’ll sing it once again.
I’ll say come on, come on, come on, come on, yeah.
Chorus 2
Take it! Take another little piece of my heart now, baby (oh, oh).
(Break it) Break another little bit of my heart now, darling, yeah (oh, oh).
(Have a) Have another little piece of my heart now, baby.
| A | A E/G# F#m E |
Well you know you got it, child, if it makes you feel good.
Solo
||: F#m | A B :|| x4
| C#m | B | D | B |
| B | B7 |
I need you to come on, come on, come on, come on, and.
Chorus 3
Take it! Take another little piece of my heart now, baby (oh, oh).
(Break it) Break another little bit of my heart, now darling, yeah, c’mon now (oh, oh).
(Have a) Have another little piece of my heart now, baby.
| A | 2/4 N.C | 4/4
You know you got it whoah! Take it.
Chorus 4
Take another little piece of my heart now, baby (oh, oh).
(Break it) Break another little bit of my Heart, now darling, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (oh, oh).
(Have a) Have another little piece of my heart now, baby, hey.
You know you got it, child if it makes you feel good.
Outro
| F#m | A B | F#m |
Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart | Chords + Lyrics (Dusty Springfield)
Intro
||: D G | A G :||
Verse 1
| D G | A G | D G | A G |
Didn’t I make you feel, like you were the only man?
| D G | A Bbdim7 |
Didn’t I give you everything a woman possibly can?
Bridge 1
| Bm | A |
(Oh) But with all the love I give you, it’s never enough.
| C | A |
(Ah, oh) Now I’m gonna show you baby, that a woman can be tough.
| A | A |
So (come on, come on, come on, come on, and).
Chorus 1
| D G | A |
(Take it) Take another little piece of my heart, now baby.
| D G | A |
(Break it) Break another little bit of my heart, now honey.
| D G | A A# |
(Have a) Have another little piece of my heart now, baby.
| G | G D/F# Em D |
You know you’ve got it if it makes you feel good.
Verse 2
Yeah out on the street (you know) and you know deep down in your heart that ain’t right.
And I know you never, never hear me when I cry at night (woah).
Bridge 2
(Ah, oh) I tell myself that I can’t stand the pain.
(Ah, oh) But when you hold me in your arms, I say it again.
So (come on come on, come on, come on and).
Chorus 2
(Take it) Take another little piece of my heart, now baby.
(Break it) Break another little bit of my heart, now honey. You’d better.
(Have a) Have another little piece of my heart, now baby.
You know you’ve got it if it makes you feel good. You’d better.
Chorus 3
||: D G | A :||
(Take it) Take another little bit of my heart, now baby.
(Break it) Break another little bit of my heart honey, now baby. You’d better.
(Have a) Have another little piece of my heart, now baby. You’d better.
(Take it) Take another little bit of my heart now baby.
Piece of My Heart Chords: Navigating the Two Iconic Arrangements
Above, you’ve seen the chords and lyrics for Piece of My Heart by Janis Joplin (1968), as well as Take Another Little Piece of My Heart by Dusty Springfield (1968). Both versions are common on the working band’s setlist.
I’ve left the original version out, it’s only included in Dusty’s playlist. The original was released in 1967 by Erma Franklin, Aretha Franklin’s older sister.
This version was (apparently) written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns. I say “apparently” because Bert is known for stealing songs. Most famously, he took Brown Eyed Girl from Van Morrison.
Hilariously, Bert first asked Van Morrison to record Piece of My Heart before getting Erma to do it!
Anyway, let’s focus on the chords for Janis and Dusty’s versions, as these are the two you’ll likely play in a band.
The two versions differ not only in key but also in arrangement, so make sure the band agrees on which version to play!
One more detail: to match Janis Joplin’s version, you’ll need to tune up to 444Hz. Dusty’s version is at standard 440Hz. Use my free online guitar tuner to tune to either.
Intro
Here are Janis Joplin’s chords for Piece of My Heart’s intro, in the key of E:
| F#m | A B |
| C#m | B | D | B |
| B | B7 |
These chords come back later in the solo, following a II – IV – V progression (repeated later). The second line follows a VI – V – bVIIx – V progression, with D being the bVIIx chord.
Finally, we play V as Janis starts singing “…come on…”
In Dusty’s version, we play the verse chords twice, like this in the key of D:
||: D G | A G :||
The G is rhythmically played differently the second time, but the chords remain the same.
Verse
Here’s Janis’s I – IV – V – IV:
||: E A | B A :||
| E A | B |
Dusty’s version includes a dim7 chord at the end, like this:
||: D G | A G :||
| D G | A Bbdim7 |
Bridge
For Janis, the bridge follows a VI – V – bVIIx – V progression:
| C#m | B | D | B | B | B7 |
Dusty’s bridge is almost identical but a tone lower due to the key change. There’s no dom7 chord at the end, that’s all:
| Bm | A | C | A | A | A |
Chorus
Janis’s chorus is more complex:
| E A | B | E A | B |
| E A | B A# |
| A | A E/G# F#m E |
After chorus 1, she plays two bars of verse chords. After chorus 2, she doesn’t, and instead, goes straight to the solo. At the end of chorus 3, she skips the turnaround and instead plays a 2/4 bar. The last chorus is followed by the outro.
For Dusty, the first three choruses follow the same pattern every time. The final chorus loops the same three chords to fade.
| D G | A | D G | A |
| D G | A G# |
| G | G D/F# Em D |
Solo
Only Janis has a solo, which is the same as the intro, except the opening line is repeated four times:
||: F#m | A B :|| x4
| C#m | B | D | B |
| B | B7 |
The outro mirrors the intro, ending on F#m.
Conclusion and Advice: Master Both Versions of Piece of My Heart for Band Harmony
As you can see, there’s plenty of room for error if half the band has listened to Janis and the other half to Dusty!
The pro guitarist learns both versions and adjusts to whichever one the band decides to play.
Here are the chord charts, bring both to the gig!
Piece of My Heart Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
To download all these charts in both format is advisable as you can imagine playing Janis version in Dusty’s key can get very confusing!
Here are both as static PDFs:
And here are the iReal Pro files:
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