By now there must be millions of songs that use the incredibly durable and adaptable 12 bar blues progression, which is, at its most basic (in the key of ‘C’):

||: C | C | C | C | F | F | C | C | G | F | C | C :||

(The relationship between the chords remains the same no matter what key you’re in.  ‘C’ represents the ‘I’ – or tonic – chord, ‘F’ the ‘IV’ – or subdominant – chord, and ‘G’ the ‘V’ – or ‘dominant’ – chord.  Now that we’ve covered that – in a very oversimplified way…)

Let’s look at how some classic pop and rock songs that are not generally considered blues utilize the 12 bar blues progression to great advantage.

First there are songs that straight up use the above chord progression (albeit in different keys) but don’t sound like traditional blues.  Examples include:

* The Verses of The Beatles’ ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ (‘I’ll buy you a diamond ring my friend…’)

* The ‘A’ section, repeated many times, of Stealers Wheel’s ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’

Some songs stay close to the 12 bar blues but work some variations:

* Bob Dylan’s ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’ has two variations – the ‘I’ chord is minor (the other chords in it stay major) and that ‘I’ chord lasts twice as long at the beginning of the progression (8 bars instead of 4), so the song’s blues progression ends up being 16 bars.

* Prince’s ‘Kiss” makes the ‘A’ and ‘D’ chords (the ‘I’ and ‘IV’) twice as long and then, once it hits the ‘E’ (‘V’) chord, uses the expected chords in a different way to end the progression:

||: A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | D | D | D | D | A | A | A | A | E | E | D | D | E | E | D | E | A | A | A | A :||

Still a blues, but modified.

* In ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, U2 works an interesting variation.  The Verses (‘I have climbed…’), which when they happen are repeated, are the first 8 bars of a blues.  So we hear that twice.  Then the Chorus (the title line) is the last 4 bars of a blues, and it’s also repeated.  It’s very common in blues to have the first 8 bars function as a Verse and the final 4 bars as a Chorus, but unusual, in my experience, to have each section happen twice before going on to the next.

* Annie Lennox does something similar in ‘Little Bird’.  For the main section of the song, she also takes the first 8 bars of a blues (in ‘E’) and repeats it, and then plays the last 4 bars (but doesn’t repeat that).  Her additional twist is to use (for the ‘V’ chord) a ‘D’ chord instead of a ‘B’ chord.  Nice!

Some other great examples are Goffin/King’s ‘Something Tells Me I’m Into Something Good’ and the Verse of Becker/Fagen’s “Peg’.

The blues is arguably the touchstone of American popular music.  Certainly it’s the foundation of Rock n Roll, Rock, Rhythm & Blues, and Jazz.  And it should be said that there are many other progressions in blues other than the 12 bar one – that’s just the most common.

The blues is a musical well from which we draw our water, our sustenance.  And the well is far from dry.

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