The classic twelve-bar blues: (I, IV, I, V, IV, I; often at least one of them being a dominant 7th chord). A ChordProgression that started out being used for blues songs (hence the name) but later worked its way into big-band swing and particularly early rock-and-roll, where it became all but omnipresent up until the mid-60's. Like the DooWopProgression, it has a distinctly "classic" feel to modern listeners. It's so recognizable that all Marty [=McFly=] had to tell his backup band in ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'' was "This is a 'blues' riff in B" and they were able to properly accompany his rendition of Music/ChuckBerry's "Johnny B. Goode" (until he started channeling Eddie van Halen, anyway).

The progression isn't strictly 12-bar, though. For example, "Heartbreak Hotel" is written with an 8-bar cycle, but otherwise uses the same chords as the standard progression.

It is an early variant of ThreeChordsAndTheTruth.

Compare TheFourChordsOfPop, which seem to have replaced this from the late 60's to the present as the dominant chord progression in popular music.

!!Songs using this chord progression:
[[folder: Rock]]
* Both versions of "Woo Hoo"[[note]]"Woo hoo, woo hoo hoo! Woo hoo, woo hoo hoo! Woo hoo, woo hoo hoo! Woo hoo, woo hoo hoo! Woo hoo! Woo hoo! Woo hoo, woo hoo hoo!...[[/note]] (perhaps best known by its cover version by The 5.6.7.8.'s).
* "Money (That's What I Want)" by Barrett Strong, which was famously covered by Music/TheBeatles.
* Music/TheBeachBoys' "Barbara Ann", with an extra two measures at the beginning
* [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] originals that use this chord progression include "You Can't Do That" and "For You Blue", in which George Harrison actually mentions this trope by name in the lyrics. "12 Bar Original" was an unreleased outtake that was eventually included on the ''Anthology 2'' compilation in 1996.
* Music/BillHaleyAndHisComets: "Rock Around the Clock"
* Music/BobDylan did quite a bit of 12-Bar Blues, most notably on "Subterranean Homesick Blues".
** "Gotta Serve Somebody" from ''Music/SlowTrainComing'' is an interesting variant, with a minor I chord instead of a major one.
** "Bob", being a parody of Dylan's work by Music/WeirdAlYankovic, is also in the 12-bar style.
* "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" and the chorus of "Honey Don't" by Carl Perkins (which replaces the IV in the tenth bar for a second V), both covered by Music/TheBeatles on the same album.
* Music/ChuckBerry's "Johnny B. Goode"
* "Chains" by the Cookies, ''also'' covered by the Beatles.
* "Don't Bring Me Down" by Music/ElectricLightOrchestra uses this in its verses.
* The blues standard "Hound Dog", made famous by Music/ElvisPresley.
** Also from Elvis, "Heartbreak Hotel", though as noted above, it's in 8-bar rather than the traditional 12-bar.
* "New Genius (Brother)" by Music/{{Gorillaz}}
* "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by Music/JamesBrown.
* "Wild One" by Johnny O'Keefe (aka "Real Wild Child" in most of its covers).
* From Music/LittleRichard, "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Lucille" and many others.
* Both "In the Summertime" and "Baby Jump" by Mungo Jerry.
* Music/NeilSedaka's song "Stupid Cupid", popularised by Connie Francis.
* Music/PinkFloyd put a straight-forward 12-bar blues song, "Seamus", on their album ''Music/{{Meddle}}''. Just to keep things from seeming ''too'' normal, though, they used an actual dog to howl along with the instrumental section. A different dog performed live on their concert film, ''Live at Pompeii''.
* "Who Wears Short Shorts" by The Royal Teens
* "Wooly Bully" by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
* "Stuck in the Middle with You" by Stealers Wheel, minus the bridge.
* Scott Weiland of Music/StoneTemplePilots fame released an album by this name. And yes, the songs matched this progression.
* The surfer tune "Wipe Out", first performed by The Surfaris in 1963.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Jazz/Blues]]
* Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll"
* Music/GlennMiller's "In the Mood"
* Being a blues singer, a number of songs by (or even just sung by) Creator/LongJohnBaldry (best known for his role as [[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog "Dr. Rrrrobotnik"]][[note]]Known these days by his Japanese name Dr. Eggman[[/note]]) naturally consist of this.
* "Jump, Jive, An' Wail" by Louis Prima; famously covered by The Brian Setzer Orchestra
* The legendary Music/RobertJohnson, the king of the Delta Blues, recorded many examples of this, including such classics as "Crossroad Blues", "Sweet Home Chicago", and "Love in Vain".
* The TropeCodifier is arguably W.C. Handy's "Saint Louis Blues" which was notably recorded by Music/BessieSmith.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Country]]
* "Sing Along" by Sturgill Simpson (verses)
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Pop]]
* Even K-pop is not immune: "Dancing Queen" by Music/GirlsGeneration uses it.
* "Better in Color" by Music/{{Lizzo}}.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Hip-Hop]]
* "Lucas with the Lid Off" by Lucas, a OneHitWonder hip-hop artist from the mid-1990s.
* "Say Hey (I Love You)" by Michael Franti & Spearhead.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Classical]]
* The principal theme of the second movement of Music/GeorgeGershwin's Concerto in F is a harmonically elaborate variation on this standard blues progression. (The blues theme of "An American in Paris" is a twelve-bar tune, but its chord progression doesn't fit this trope.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Novelty]]
* Found occasionally in the works of Music/PDQBach with rather un-bluesy themes:
** The Prelude in A major from "The Short-Tempered Clavier."
** The Lullaby and Goodnight from the "Little Pickle Book" takes the familiar opening motif of Music/JohannesBrahms' "Wiegenlied" and repeats it over the 12-bar blues changes.
** The third movement of "Concerto for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra" gives its theme a "Rock Around the Clock"-like bluesy twist halfway through (and throws in a quotation of [[Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance "I am the very model of a modern Major-General"]] in the eleventh and twelfth bars of this).
[[/folder]]

!!Songs from media using this chord progression:
[[folder: Anime]]
* In the anime adaptation of the Literature/VickyTheViking books, the theme song does this in the German dub[[note]]"Hey hey, Vicky! Hey, Vicky, hey!..."[[/note]], but not in the original Japanese version.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film]]
* The Louisiana Gator Boys in ''Film/BluesBrothers2000'', fronted by Music/BBKing and with a literal [[AllStarCast all-star lineup]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5mL1UOsK74 seen here singing "How Blue Can You Get."]] (The ending falls into a 16-bar blues style.)
* Ellis Hall's "Flip Flop and Fly" (as heard in ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun''), which is [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong similar sounding]] to W.C Handy's "Saint Louis Blues".
* "Greased Lightning" from the ''Film/{{Grease}}'' musical and film.
* The songs sung by the Hippie Hitler in the ShowWithinTheShow in ''Film/TheProducers'' (the original movie).
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* Neal Hefti's classic theme to the [[Series/Batman1966 Adam West-era Batman series]] does this.
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vddbWs8TOLk theme]] to the 1980 game show ''Series/{{Blockbusters}}''.
* Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem's jam session from the Harvey Korman episode of ''Series/TheMuppetShow''.
* Proving that this truly is universal, the theme song from ''Series/PetticoatJunction''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Theater]]
* The refrain of "Biggest Blame Fool" from ''Theatre/{{Seussical}}'' uses the all major-minor sevenths version.
* "Li'l Augie Is A Natural Man" from the musical ''St. Louis Woman'' uses the 12-bar blues as the first section of the standard AABA pattern, as does "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home" (though only the final A section isn't truncated to 10 bars).
* "I Got A Marble And A Star" from ''Theatre/StreetScene''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* A number of songs from the original ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' are composed with the 12-bar blues progression - most notably [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEYxYcLi1lc At Doom's Gate ([=E1M1=])]] (although extended to 16 bars) and On the Hunt ([=E1M6=]), while The Imp's Song ([=E1M2=]) uses a corrupted version of it.
* The Hippie Battle theme from ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' and ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound|1994}}'', as well as "Rock and Roll (Mild)" and "(Spicy)" in ''VideoGame/Mother3'' use this progression as they are in the style of 50's rock. In fact, the former is said to be based off "Johnny B. Goode".
* "Mighty, Mighty Man" by Roy Brown is one of the songs in constant rotation on "Galaxy News Radio" in the video game ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''.
* "Johnny C. Bad", that upbeat piano and bass tune that plays in a crowded bar and later the Dragon's Neck Coliseum in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''.
* Adeleine's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESgIdWCPkBo battle theme]] in ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards''.
* Two arcade games by Irem: Moon Patrol and Spartan X (AKA: "VideoGame/KungFuMaster") do this in their main themes.
* ''VideoGame/WarioWare'':
** The Mona Pizza song from ''VideoGame/WarioWareTwisted''
** Mike's theme from ''VideoGame/WarioWareTouched'' does this with a slight variation at the end.
* "Unfinished Business" from the ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' OST.
* The title screen/bonus stage theme from ''VideoGame/IceClimber'', also appearing in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series.
* 1P Music Type B (NES/GB/GCN)/2P Music Type A (SNES) in ''Yoshi's Cookie''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* Used throughout the [[WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons Oh Yeah! Cartoon]] short "Blotto".
* The opening theme music to WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow does this[[note]]On the "You Eediot" album, it's referred to as "Dog Pound Hop".[[/note]], as well as the ending theme.[[note]]"Big House Blues", named after the original pilot.[[/note]]
[[/folder]]
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