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"I've Got You Under My Skin": How the Chord Progression Works
The chord progression takes quite a few twists and turns, so four circular harmonic scales are enlisted to map the whole thing (Figure 89 below).
The first chord map shows that the song begins conventionally enough with a repeating sequence of fifths down. A couple of interesting points:
- Porter starts the vocal on the IIm chord instead of the tonic.
- For added push, he uses minor seventh variant chords in place of minor default chords.
This four-chord progression repeats fours times, firmly establishing tonality.
Then, as the second and third chord maps show, Porter brings in the other three degrees of the harmonic scale, and simultaneously introduces a lot of variant chords at every harmonic degree except III7 (E7). The effect is a rich harmonic experience without the slightest sense of loss of tonality.