Wonderful Tonight | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: G | D/F# | C | D :||
Verse 1
||: G | D/F# | C | D :||
It’s late in the evening, she’s wondering what clothes to wear.
She puts on her makeup and brushes her long blonde hair.
Chorus 1
| C | D | G D/F# | Em |
And then she asks me “Do I look all right?”.And I say,
| C | D |
“Yes, you look wonderful tonight”.
Instrumental 1
| G | D/F# | C | D |
Verse 2
We go to a party and everyone turns to see.
This beautiful lady, who’s walking around with me.
Chorus 2
| C | D | G D/F# | Em |
And then she asks me “Do you feel all right?”.
| C | D | G | D/F# |
And I say, “Yes, I feel wonderful tonight”.
Middle 8
| C | D | G D/F# | Em |
I feel wonderful because I see the love light in your eyes.
| C | D | C | D |
Then the wonder of it all is that you just don’t realize, how much I love you.
Instrumental 2
||: G | D/F# | C | D :||
Verse 3
It’s time to go home now and I’ve got an aching head.
So I give her the car keys and she helps me to bed.
Chorus 3
| C | D | G D/F# | Em |
And then I tell her, as I turn out the light.
| C | D | G D/F# | Em |
I say, “My darling you were wonderful tonight”
| C | D |
“Oh, my darling, you were wonderful tonight”
Outro
||: G | D/F# | C | D :|| G |
Wonderful Tonight Chords: Learn the progressions
This minimalistic ballad is hit writing at its best, the chords are obvious and the guitar melody hits all the money notes.
The chord progressions develop in a subtle way throughout, starting off with the section used for the intro, verse, instrumental and outro, which is just this:
||: G (I) | D/F# (V/3) | C (IV) | D (V) :||
The chorus cleverly moves in the same way, but starts on a different chord, the C, like this:
| C (IV) | D (V) | G (I) D/F# (V/3) |
| Em (VI) | C (IV) | D (V) |
Only the Em chord is new, the G and D/F# now share a bar – genius!
There’s a full chord analysis as well as a deep dive into the intro melody using TAB in this part of the lesson: Wonderful Tonight – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
In the TAB lesson, you’ll study that guitar melody in detail as we develop it using various forms of expression techniques such as slides, hammer-ons, and vibrato.
Should you want to go even deeper, you can play that melody using different expression techniques in the remaining four CAGED shapes. Each shape will give you different options.
If you do this to enough songs, you will greatly improve as an improviser, all you need at that point is a simple chord chart, like this:

Wonderful Tonight Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Wonderful Tonight Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Wonderful Tonight iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Did Wonderful Tonight lead to George Harrison’s divorce from Patti Boyd?
Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton is a single from his 1977 album Slowhand.
This was Eric’s fifth solo album which also contained two other classics, Lay Down Sally and J.J. Cale’s Cocaine.
Written about Patti Boyd who was married to George Harrison but divorced him the same year Wonderful Tonight was released. Two years later she married Eric.
How much the tune itself played a part in this may be best left unsaid, but it can’t have helped heal the relationship between George and Patti!
Wonderful Tonight Chords | Related Pages
Wonderful Tonight | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton using TAB and chord analysis.
| G | D/F# | C | D |
It’s late in the evening, she’s wondering what clothes to wear…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Eric Clapton tunes
As well as a member of bands like Derek & The Dominos, The Yardbirds, and Cream, Eric Clapton has successfully played sessions for more stars than any other guitar player.
His long career earned him three inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.
Eric Clapton on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Wonderful Tonight’s 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 by practising scales or studying theory in isolation.