Save Tonight chords

Video blocked due to privacy settings

Save Tonight | Chords + Lyrics

Intro

||: Am F | C G5 :||
||: Am F | C G5 :||
||: Du du du du, du du du du. :||

Verse 1

||: Am F | C G5 | Am F | C G5 :||
Go on and close, the curtains, ’cause all we need, is candlelight.
You and me, and a bottle of wine, to hold you tonight (ah, yeah).
Well we know, I’m going away and how I wish, I wish it weren’t so.
So take this wine, and drink with me, and let’s delay our misery.

Chorus 1

||: Am F | C G5 | Am F | C G5 :||
Save tonight, and fight the break of dawn, come tomorrow, tomorrow I’ll be gone.
Save tonight, and fight the break of dawn, come tomorrow, tomorrow I’ll be gone.

Verse 2

||: Am F | C G5 | Am F | C G5 :||
There’s a log on the fire, and it burns like me for you.
Tomorrow comes, with one desire, to take me away (oh it’s true).
It ain’t easy to say goodbye, Darlin’ please, don’t start to cry.
‘Cause girl you know I’ve got to go (oh) and Lord I wish it wasn’t so.

Chorus 2

Instrumental

||: Am F | C G5 :|| x4

Breakdown

||: Am F | C G5 | Am F | C G5 :||
Tomorrow comes to take me away, I wish that I, that I could stay.
But girl you know I’ve got to go (oh) and Lord I wish wasn’t so.

Chorus 3

||: Am F | C G5 | Am F | C G5 :||
||: Save tonight, and fight the break of dawn, come tomorrow, tomorrow I’ll be gone. :|| x4

Outro

||: Am F | C G5 :|| x4
||: Tomorrow I’ll be gone :|| x4

||: Am F | C G5 :|| x4

||: Am F | C G5 :||
Save tonight, save tonight.
Save tonight, save tonight (oh, that’s right).
Save tonight, save tonight.

Save Tonight’s chords and progression

One of the best things about a four-chord song like this is that you can learn it quickly and in a band setting, focus on dynamics, and communicate with band members, rather than remember Save Tonight’s chords.

One endless loop of VI – IV – I – V, Am – F – C – G5, is all we get in Save Tonight. How come it works so well?

Perhaps it’s got to do with the initial VI – IV, this is pretty unusual. I – IV being the most common movement around, having the relative minor first instead, does feel very different.

Following this, we are moving backward through the cycle of 4th. Normally you’d go up from G – C – F, but in Save Tonight, the chords move the other way, F – C – G. This is clear enough to be familiar, but with a twist.

Incubus Mike Einziger definitely like Save Tonight as he “took inspiration” from it when he cowrote Wake Me Up with Avicii.