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Partial list of songs that use the I—vi—IV—V or I—vi—ii—V chord progression as their harmonic basis

  • Heart and Soul (Carmichael and Loesser)
  • Stand by Me (Ben E. King)
  • Blue Moon (Rodgers and Hart)
  • Earth Angel (Williams, Belvin, and Hodge)
  • Stand By Me (Ben E. King)
  • Duke of Earl (Gene Chandler)
  • Loveable (Sam Cooke)
  • Jesus of Suburbia (Armstrong, Dirnt, and Cool)
  • In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel; Mangum)
  • Eternal Flame (Hoffs, Kelly, and Steinberg)
  • True Blue (Madonna)
  • Perfect (Ed Sheeran)
  • Bristol Stomp (The Dovells; Mann, and Appell)
  • Stir It Up (Bob Marley)
  • Beauty School Dropout (Jacobs and Casey)
  • Since I Fell For You (Buddy Johnson)
  • These Foolish Things (Strachey and Maschwitz)
  • Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)
  • Every Breath You Take (Sting)
  • Sherry (The Four Seasons; Bob Gaudio)
  • Carolina In My Mind (End of choruses; James Taylor)
  • Baby (Justin Bieber, Christopher Stewart, Terius Nash, Christopher Bridges, Christina Milian)
  • D’yer Mak’er (Led Zeppelin; Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)
  • Marvin Gaye (the song) (Charlie Puth, Julie Frost, Jacob, Luttrell, Nick Seeley)
  • Dear Future Husband (Meghan Trainor, Kevin Kadish)
  • All I Have to Do Is Dream (The Everly Brothers; Boudleaux Bryant)
  • Runaround Sue (Dion DiMucci, Ernie Maresca)

Special thanks to songwriters Jimmy Clark (http://JCMusicAndWellness.Com) , John Primerano (http://www.johnprimerano.com), and Herbert Roselle for their assistance in assembling this list.

For examples from concert music literature that use the progression, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50s_progression