The 50s progression is a chord progression (ie sequence of chords) used in Western popular music. As the name implies, it was common in the 1950s and early 1960s and is particularly associated with doo-wop. The Finnish language name for this progression is Aku Ankka -kierto (Donald Duck progression). A chord progression (also chord sequence and harmonic progression or sequence), as its name implies, is a series of chords played in order. ... Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music popular in the mid-1950s to the early 1960s in America. ... Finnish ( , or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% as of 2006[3]) and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. ...

The progression is

• I vi IV V

for example, C Am F G (in C).

As with any other chord progression, there are many possible variations, for example turning the V into a V7, or extended repeats of I vi followed by a single IV V. A very common variation is replacing the IV with ii.

Songs using the progression

There are far too many examples of songs using this progression to produce an exhaustive list. However some examples of well-known songs which use it are:

• 'Heart and Soul (song)' - Hoagy Carmichael
• 'Diana' - Paul Anka
• 'Blue Moon' - Rodgers and Hart
• 'Oh Carol' - most associated with Neil Sedaka
• 'Every Breath You Take' - The Police
• 'Please Mister Postman' - The Marvelettes
• 'I Know It's Over' - The Smiths
• 'Stand By Me' - Ben E. King
• 'Sleep Walk' - Santo & Johnny
• 'Once Upon a Time' - Bobby Darin
• Pts 1 & 2 ('Jesus of Suburbia' and 'City Of The Damned') of 'Jesus of Suburbia' - Green Day
• 'In the Aeroplane Over the Sea' - Neutral Milk Hotel
• 'Baby, I'm an Anarchist! - Against Me!
• 'Wasted' - Carrie Underwood
• 'Earth Angel' - The Penguins
• 'All I Have to Do Is Dream' - Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
• 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love' - Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers
• 'D'yer Mak'er' - Led Zeppelin
• 'Octopus's Garden' and 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun' (second half) - The Beatles
• 'Dream' - Johnny Mercer
• 'The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows' - Brand New
• 'Soul Love' - David Bowie
• 'The Thin Ice' - Pink Floyd
• 'Those Magic Changes' - Sha Na Na (featured in the film Grease, the lyrics to this song seem to be about the 50s progression)
• 'Untitled - Simple Plan
• 'Music When the Lights Go Out' - the Libertines uses the ii substitution
• 'Runaround Sue' - Dion
• Dance With Me - Adam Green
• Teenager Liebe - Die Ärzte
• Last Kiss - Pearl Jam
• 'Grace Cathedral Hill' - The Decemberists (uses I-vi-IV-V-V7 in the verse)
• '1234 1234' - Streetlight Manifesto
• She's Everything by Brad Paisley
• 'Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder' and 'What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?' - The Mothers of Invention, both of which parody doo-wop.
• Little Darlin' - The Diamonds
• Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers
• The piece played on the giant keyboard in Big
• If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time - R. Kelly
• Crocodile Rock - Elton John (Na Na Na Part)
• Telephone Line - ELO (Chorus)
• Little Surfer Girl - Beach Boys
• She Has a Girlfriend Now - Reel Big Fish

Heart and Soul is a popular song. ... Hoagland Howard Hoagy Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. ... Diana is a 1957 #1 hit single that was made famous by Paul Anka. ... Paul Albert Anka, OC (born 30 July 1941, in Ottawa, Ontario) is a Canadian-born American singer, songwriter, and actor of Assyrian origin. ... The term blue moon has at least four related meanings. ... Rodgers and Hart was the songwriting team consisting of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. ... Neil Sedaka (born March 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American pop singer, pianist, and songwriter often associated with the Brill Building. ... Every Breath You Take is a song written by Sting and originally performed by The Police. ... This article is about the rock band. ... Please Mr. ... The Marvelettes was an American singing girl group on the Motown label. ... The Queen Is Dead is the third studio album of The Smiths. ... The Smiths were an English rock band active from 1982 to 1987, based on the songwriting partnership of singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr. ... For other uses, see Stand by Me. ... Ben E. King (born Benjamin Earl Nelson on September 28, 1938, in Henderson, North Carolina) became a famous soul singer of the early 60s. ... Sleep Walk is an instrumental guitar-based song recorded and released in 1959 by Santo & Johnny. ... Santo & Johnny were an American rock and roll duo from Brooklyn. ... Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Bobby Cassotto, May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was one of the most popular American big band performers and rock and roll teen idols of the late 1950s. ... Jesus of Suburbia is the fifth and final single to be released from Green Days seventh studio album, American Idiot. ... This article is about the band Green Day. ... In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is an album released in 1998 by Neutral Milk Hotel. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Reinventing Axl Rose is Against Me!s first full length album. ... Against Me! is a punk rock band formed in 1997 in Gainesville, Florida. ... Wasted is Carrie Underwoods sixth single from her multi-platinum debut Some Hearts. ... Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983 in Muskogee, Oklahoma) is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer. ... Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine) is an American pop song, originally released by The Penguins in 1954 on the Dootone label (Dootone 348), as the B-side to Hey Señorita. Both songs were originally recorded, as demo recordings, at Ted Brinsons garage studio in South Los Angeles... The Penguins were an American Doo-Wop group of the 1950s and 60s, best remembered for their only top 40 hit, Earth Angel, which was one of the first rhythm and blues hits to cross over to the pop charts. ... All I Have to Do Is Dream is a popular song. ... Boudleaux and Felice Bryant Felice Bryant (August 7, 1925 – April 22, 2003) and Boudleaux Bryant (February 13, 1920 – June 26, 1987) were an American wife and husband country music songwriting team who were also at the forefront of the evolution of pop music. ... Why Do Fools Fall in Love was originally a 1956 hit song by doo-wop group Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers and later revived 25 years later by soul singer Diana Ross in 1981. ... Frankie Lymon (September 30, 1942 - February 27, 1968) was the leader of a doo wop group called The Teenagers. ... Audio sample Info (help·info) Dyer Maker (intended to be pronounced with a British non-rhotic accent as jah-may-kah) is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin, from their 1973 album Houses of the Holy. ... For the bands 1969 eponymous debut album, see Led Zeppelin (album). ... -1... Happiness Is a Warm Gun is a song by The Beatles featured on the double-disc album The Beatles (also known as The White Album). ... The White Album, see The Beatles (album). ... Dream (sometimes referred to as Dream (When Youre Feeling Blue)) is a jazz and pop standard written by Johnny Mercer in 1944 and performed by many artists. ... John Herndon Johnny Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was a popular American songwriter and singer. ... The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows is a song by Brand New. ... For other uses, see Brand New (disambiguation). ... Soul Love is a song written by David Bowie in 1972 for the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. ... David Bowie (pronounced ) (born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English musician, actor, producer, arranger, and audio engineer. ... The Thin Ice is a song by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd. ... Pink Floyd are an English rock band that initially earned recognition for their psychedelic or space rock music, and, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music. ... Sha Na Na Sha Na Na is a rock and roll/comedy group from New York City, who perform covers of doo wop hits from the 1950s, simultaneously reviving and sending up the music, as well as 1950s New York street culture, in their performances. ... For the original stage musical of the same name, see Grease (musical). ... The word untitled refers to something that has no title. ... This article is about the Canadian pop punk band. ... The Libertines were an English rock band formed in London in 1997 and active until 2004. ... Runaround Sue is a popular song, originally a US # 1 pop hit for Dion in 1961. ... Dion DiMucci (born Dion Francis DiMucci, 18 July 1939), better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter, now widely recognized as one of the top singers of his era, blending the best elements of doo-wop, pop, and R&B styles. ... Dance With Me may refer to: Dance With Me (Orleans song), a song by Orleans Dance With Me (TSOL album), a 1981 album by TSOL Dance With Me (Alphaville song), a song by Alphaville, from their 1986 album Afternoons in Utopia Dance With Me (musical), a 1975 Broadway musical directed... There are two articles on people named Adam Green: Adam Green (musician) Adam Green (footballer) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Teenager Liebe (unecht) [ Teenager love (fake)] is a punk song by Die Ärzte. ... For the bands self-named studio album, see Die Ärzte (album). ... Last Kiss is a song written by Wayne Cochran in 1962 and originally performed by Wayne Cochran & the C.C. Riders. ... This article is about the rock group. ... The Decemberists are a five-piece indie pop band from Portland, Oregon, fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy . ... Streetlight Manifesto is an American ska punk band from East Brunswick Township, New Jersey. ... Shes Everything is a single by American country music artist Brad Paisley that reached the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart. ... Brad Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972 in Glen Dale, West Virginia) is an American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist. ... Whats the Ugliest Part of Your Body? is a track from the album Were Only in It for the Money by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. ... The Mothers of Invention were a rock and roll band active from the 1960s to the 1990s. ... Little Darlin is a popular Top 40 song covered successfully by The Diamonds, later recorded by Elvis Presley. ... The Diamonds. ... Unchained Melody is a popular song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. ... The Righteous Brothers The Righteous Brothers were the musical duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. ... For other uses, see Big (disambiguation). ... If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time was the fifth single released by R. Kelly from his 1998 album, R.. The song is a sweeping ballad about a man wishing he could go back in time and repair his relationship with his girlfriend. ... R. Kelly (born Robert Sylvester Kelly on January 8, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American R&B and pop singer, songwriter, record producer, and occasional rapper. ... Crocodile Rock is a song written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. ... Sir Elton Hercules[1] John CBE[2] (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is a five-time Grammy and one-time Academy Award-winning English pop/rock singer, composer and pianist. ... ELO or Elo may refer to: Elo rating system for measuring relative strength of players in chess and other two-player games World Football Elo Ratings, a ranking system for mens national teams in football Árpád ÉlÅ‘ (1903-1992), Hungarian creator of ELO rating system Electric Light Orchestra... The Beach Boys, originally the Beech Boys, a small team of four brothers from the south of Poland, emigrated to America in the early 1950s in search of a fortune to be made in the Arizonian logging industry. When it soon became evident they had been the victims of... Reel Big Fish is an American ska punk band from Huntington Beach, California, best known for the 1997 hit Sell Out. ...

See also

• Twelve bar blues, another common chord progression