Standards
Love For Sale chords & key
- Key
- B♭ minor
- Form
- AAB
- Bars
- 48
- Groove
- Medium-up swing
- Time signature
- 4/4
“Love For Sale” is a jazz standard by Cole Porter. It is usually played in B♭ minor as a medium-up swing, and the 48-bar AAB form has 3 sections. Harmonically it contains 4 major ii–V–I cadences and 2 minor ii–V–i, uses 16 different chords and moves between the key centres D♭ major and B♭ minor. In this atlas it appears on 13 album tracks.
Chord changes
Showing in: Concert (C) — B♭ minor
Changes as commonly played (concert pitch). Your band's version may differ.
Harmonic analysis
Most used chords
- E♭maj7×8
- B♭m7×8
- D♭maj7×5
- E♭m7×4
- A♭7×4
- B♭m6×4
Key centres reached by ii–V
D♭ major and B♭ minor
Recorded on these albums
| 1952 | Solitude Billie Holiday · “Love for Sale” |
| 1953 | Oscar Peterson Plays Cole Porter Oscar Peterson |
| 1954 | Billie Holiday Billie Holiday · “Love for Sale” |
| 1956 | Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book Ella Fitzgerald · “Love for Sale” |
| 1957 | The Beat of My Heart Tony Bennett · “Love for Sale” |
| 1957 | Plays Cole Porter - The Genius of Charlie Parker #5 Charlie Parker · “Love for Sale” |
| 1959 | Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook Oscar Peterson · “Love for Sale” |
| 1962 | I Left My Heart in San Francisco Tony Bennett · “Love for Sale” |
| 1971 | Giants Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Hackett, Mary Lou Williams, Grady Tate & George Duvivier · “Love for Sale” |
| 1972 | Ella Loves Cole Ella Fitzgerald · “Love for Sale” |
| 1978 | Dream Dancing: Ella Fitzgerald & Cole Porter Ella Fitzgerald · “Love for Sale” |
| 1986 | “Easy Living” Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass · “Love for Sale” |
| 2003 | Body & Soul Billie Holiday |
Historic 78 rpm recordings
- Love For Sale Roger King Mozian & his Orchestra · Cole Porter · 1953 archive.org ↗
- Love for Sale The Gene Krupa Trio · Gene Krupa · Teddy Napoleon · Eddie Shiu ·… · 1955 archive.org ↗
Standards with similar changes
Similarity of the chord progression, independent of key.
| Title | Key |
|---|---|
| Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise 20% | C minor |
Frequently asked questions
What key is Love For Sale in?
Love For Sale is usually played in B♭ minor. For B♭ instruments that is C minor, for E♭ instruments G minor.
Who wrote Love For Sale?
Love For Sale was written by Cole Porter.
What is the form of Love For Sale?
Love For Sale has 3 sections (AAB) with 48 bars in total.
How fast is Love For Sale played?
The usual groove is Medium-up swing.
What are the chord changes to Love For Sale?
The opening bars are Ebmaj7 | Ebmaj7 | Bbm7 | Bbm7. The full chart above can be transposed to any key.