You Can’t Hurry Love | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| N.C | N.C | N.C | N.C | Bb N.C | N.C |
Verse 1
| Bb | Bb | Eb Bb | Bb |
I need love, love, to ease my mind.
| Dm Gm7 | Gm7 | Eb | F |
I need to find, find, someone to call mine, but mama said.
Chorus 1
| Bb | Bb | Eb Bb | Bb |
You can’t hurry love, no you just have to wait,
| Dm Gm7 | Gm Gm7 | Eb | F |
she said love don’t come easy, it’s a game of give and take.
| Bb | Bb | Eb Bb | Bb |
You can’t hurry love, no you just have to wait,
| Dm Gm | Gm | Eb | F |
you gotta trust, give it time, no matter how long it takes.
Bridge 1
| Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm |
But how many heartaches must I stand,
| Gm | Gm | Gm | Gm |
before I find a love to let me live again.
| Eb | Eb | Eb | Eb |
Right now the only thing, that keeps me hanging on,
| F | F F6 | F7 | F7 F |
when I feel my strength, yeah it’s almost gone, I remember mama said.
Chorus 2
You can’t hurry love, no you just have to wait,
she said love don’t come easy, it’s a game of give and take.
How long must I wait, how much more can I take,
before loneliness, will ’cause my heart, heart to break?
Bridge 2
| Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm |
No, I can’t bear, to live my life alone,
| Gm7 | Gm7 Gm | Gm7 Gm | Gm |
I grow impatient for a love, to call my own.
| Eb | Eb | Eb | Eb E |
But when I feel that I, I can’t go on,
| F | F F6 | F7 | F7 F |
these precious words keeps me hanging on, I remember mama said.
Chorus 3
(You can’t hurry love) no you just have to wait.
She said love don’t come easy, it’s a game of give and take.
You can’t hurry love, no you just have to wait,
she said: “Trust, give it time, no matter how long it takes” (Now wait).
Breakdown
| N.C | N.C |
Verse 2 (triple)
| Bb | Bb | Eb Bb | Bb |
No love, love don’t come easy,
| Dm Gm7 | Gm7 | Eb | F |
but I keep on waiting, anticipating for that,
| Bb | Bb | Eb Bb | Bb |
soft voice, to talk to me at night.
| Dm Gm7 | Gm7 | Eb | F |
For some tender arms to hold me tight,
| Bb | Bb | Eb Bb | Bb |
I keep waiting, I keep on waiting,
| Dm Gm | Gm | Eb | F |
but it ain’t easy, it ain’t easy, when mama said.
Chorus 4
| Bb | Bb | Eb Bb | Bb |
You can’t hurry love, no you just have to wait,
| Dm Dsus4 Gm | Gm | Eb | F |
she said: “Trust, give it time, no matter how long it takes”.
| Bb | Bb | Eb Bb | Bb |
You can’t hurry love, no you just have to wait,
| Dm Gm | Gm | Eb | F | to fade
She said love don’t come easy.
You Can’t Hurry Love Chords: Learn the progressions
You Can’t Hurry Love‘s verse chords are diatonic to the key of Bb, they don’t break any harmonic rules. Here they are with Roman Numerals:
| Bb (I) | Bb | Eb (IV) Bb (I) | Bb |
| Dm (III) Gm7 (VI) | Gm7 | Eb (IV) F (V) | F |
The first verse is only this long, the second verse repeats three times and takes ages before reappearing.
The chorus is the same progression as the verse, repeats twice and uses a different rhythm to the verse.
This leaves us with the bridge which comes after the first chorus and goes like this:
| Dm (III) | Dm | Dm | Dm |
| Gm (VI) | Gm | Gm | Gm |
| Eb (IV) | Eb | Eb | Eb |
| F (V) | F F6 | F7 | F7 F |
Never do we venture outside the key, the only unusual thing about You Can’t Hurry Love is the arrangement, the order of the sections which goes like this:
- Intro (bass and drums mainly)
- Verse 1
- Chorus 1
- Bridge 1
- Chorus 2
- Bridge 2
- Chorus 3
- Breakdown (N.C)
- Verse 2
- Chorus 4
Since the verse and chorus share the same chords, you could in a chart call this section A, and the bridge section B, giving you plenty of space between the three sections intro, verse/chorus, and bridge.
Here’s a chord chart I made for you.
You Can’t Hurry Love Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: You Can’t Hurry Love Chord Chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to that file: You Can’t Hurry Love iReal Pro.
The advantage to how I wrote the chord chart above is that it looks simple (verse and chorus are both called A section). If you don’t like this, you could change it using the iReal Pro app.
What you’ll gain in clarity from writing the same thing twice, you’ll lose in the spacing between the sections.
Perhaps more importantly, using the app, you can change the key should your singer feel rusty. This happens from time to time with this tune.
Below is a course preview, we study how to play all of You Can’t Hurry Love’s chords all over the neck, maintaining the characteristic rhythm.
You Can’t Hurry Love TAB | Course Preview
When it comes to actually playing You Can’t Hurry Love’s chords on the guitar, the best thing this teaches us is how to maintain a repetitive rhythm as the chords change.
By playing the same rhythm for every chord, you create a meditative part that is easy for the listener to absorb. By changing the chord shapes, you provide subtle variation.
When you can play the song in an improvised way, meaning, you change the chord shapes as you go along, still maintaining the set rhythm, you are on the right track.
To achieve this, you must practice the chord progression for each section in every area of the neck.
In the play-along TAB loop above, we do this for the chorus in the lowest possible area, starting with an A shape. Here are the chords and TAB in this first example:
Notice how the Bb and Gm chords are early (beat 4). In the course lesson, we next move up the fretboard until all areas are covered.
Using live band loops and TAB like this for all sections of You Can’t Hurry Love, you’ll soon be able to improvise your rhythm guitar part, just like I did in the video at the top of this page.
Here’s a link to the 8 step-by-step guitar lessons: You Can’t Hurry Love – Guitar Lessons with TAB.
You Can’t Hurry Love is The Supremes’ signature song!
You Can’t Hurry Love is a single by The Supremes. Released in 1966 it would become one of the band’s biggest hits, perfectly representing the ’60s Motown sound.
Written by Holland-Dozier-Holland, it is a true jewel in the crown of Berry Gordy’s musical empire.
Looking back, you may think The Supremes (the most successful American vocal group of all time) was an instant hit at Motown but this was not the case.
With their first release in 1960, it would take three years and nine singles before success came. The other acts on the label even referred to them as the no-hit Supremes!
But The Supremes and especially Diana Ross was Berry Gordy‘s favourite so he was not going to give up on her.
Berry was right as once they got going it was no stopping with a string of hits for three hectic years including Where Did Our Love Go, Baby Love, and Come See About Me, all in 1964.
In 1965 they had success with Stop! In the Name of Love, Back in My Arms Again, and I Hear A Symphony.
1966 was another great year as they released You Can’t Hurry Love, You Keep Me Hanging On, Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone, and The Happening, all reaching #1.
In total, The Supremes had 12 #1 tunes, and as all working bands since the ’70s know, You Can’t Hurry Love is the best one, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a female-fronted Motown band leave it out.
You Can’t Hurry Love Chords | Related Pages
You Can’t Hurry Love | 8 Step-by-step Guitar Lessons + TAB
Learn how to play You Can’t Hurry Love, step-by-step by practicing each section of the song with the band.
As well as this we also practice all our dom7 CAGED shapes. if you can play all shapes, you can play this tune in an improvised way.
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
Holland-Dozier-Holland tunes
Motown’s main songwriting team, Holland-Dozier-Holland are responsible for some of the biggest tunes of all time.
Their hit parade includes classics such as Can I Get A Witness, Jimmy Mack, Reach Out, I’ll Be There, You Can’t Hurry Love, and Band Of Gold.
Holland-Dozier-Holland on the web
The Supremes tunes
The Supremes are the most successful American vocal group of all time, at their peak, they were as big as The Beatles.
Led by Diana Ross, they had #1’s with Where Did Our Love Go, Baby Love, Stop! In the Name of Love, You Can’t Hurry Love, and You Keep Me Hangin’ On.
The Supremes on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about You Can’t Hurry Love 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.
