One Chord Songs

jkevinwolfe

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To go one beyond the two-chord song thread, what about one chord songs? Krabbers pointed out "Run Through the Jungle" by CCR could be played with E all the way through. (I see some of the tab sites listing it as just Cm.)

Nilsson's Coconut is just C7. Picking strings 1-4-2-3-1-4 sounds close to the original.

I'm sure in most great songwriter's lives someone challenges them to write a hit with just one chord. There's two that made it. Any more?
 
Bob Dylan: Ballad of Hollis Brown. Basically Em (or Dm or anyother minor you want) with some filigree picking.
 
Mannish Boy -- Muddy Waters

Exodus -- Bob Marley


JJ
 
Bad to the Bone by George Thorogood
Bullet the Blue Sky by U2
Catch a Falling Star as sung by Perry Cuomo
Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin
Electric Avenue by Eddie Grant
Hey, Bo Diddley by Bo Diddley
On the Road Again by Canned Heat
Run Through the Jungle by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Showbiz Kids by Steely Dan
We Will Rock You by Queen
 
Bad to the Bone by George Thorogood
Bullet the Blue Sky by U2
Catch a Falling Star as sung by Perry Cuomo
Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin
Electric Avenue by Eddie Grant
Hey, Bo Diddley by Bo Diddley
On the Road Again by Canned Heat
Run Through the Jungle by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Showbiz Kids by Steely Dan
We Will Rock You by Queen

Bo Diddley is two chords: G-F
On the Road Again: E-G-A
Ditto with George Thoroughgood, I seem to recall...
 
Keith Urban and Stoney Larue both have one-chord songs called, appropriately, "One Chord Song."
 
Bo Diddley is two chords: G-F
On the Road Again: E-G-A
Ditto with George Thoroughgood, I seem to recall...

You're such a stickler.

"Forever in My Life" by Prince is one chord.
 
You're such a stickler.
Yeah - I know. Compulsive obsessive, anal, I suppose. But I played a lot of two-three chords songs as I was learning guitar - still do - and I see a few of them listed here as "one-chorders", so I have to speak out. A chord change is anotehr chord, no matter how short or abrupt.

BTW, Bo Diddley's (who I saw live in 1970) theme resurfaced as Mona and Who Do You Love - and the ultimate version of those two was done by Quicksilver Messenger Service on their second album, Happy Trails (1969). Great video on YouTube of it (if that video was shot in Vancouver, I may have been there in the audience...). Check the 'related' sidebar for other versions and the album version - don't miss the John Cipollina version!

Similarly it morphed into Not Fade Away, an early hit for the Rolling Stones (and in their best period).​
 
BTW'sW,

This riff was not really Bo Diddley's. It's called the Juba or Hambone and dates to the late 1800's. Add Willie and the Hand Jive to that list. But then, that's another thread.
 
What's a "minor" insert? Does it create a new chord? In that case, it isn't really a "one-chord" song.

by minor inserts i dont mean other chords. more like melodic notes added in, if you wanted to play it close to how the original song goes. but if you were just strumming the song and singing along with it, it would just be F#m the whole way through.
 
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