Suspended Chord - Examples in Popular Music

Examples in Popular Music

Suspended chords are commonly found in folk music and popular music. An example can be found in the piece "One Short Day", part of the Wicked musical by Stephen Schwartz, which starts with a descending arpeggio of a suspended chord. In rock, the verse of The Who song "Pinball Wizard" is a sequence of suspended fourth chords resolving to their major counterparts (Bsus4-B Asus4-A etc.). Another example is John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", where the sequence is of majors progressing to suspended second, then fourth, then back to the original (A-Asus2-Asus4-A)). In pop/synth-pop, Erasure's "A Little Respect" employs major to suspended changes in much of the song's harmonization. Another example with major to suspended progression is Johnny Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory". The last chord of the first bridge of The Police's "Every Breath You Take" is an unresolved suspended chord, the introduction and chorus of Shocking Blue's "Venus" each contain an unresolved suspended chord, and the introduction of Chicago's "Make Me Smile" has two different suspended chords without traditional resolution.