In the line “but I couldn’t stand the pain,” the word “pain” lands on F, the major IV chord. This tune is in D, but I’m once again putting it into C for discussion purposes. You can hear it at around 1:00 in “If I Fell,” in the bridge. The Kalinnikov/Willie Nelson progression is also related to the “Beatles cadence,” technically a combination major/minor plagal cadence. I think of the blues as being more about overcoming or enduring sadness than just expressing it. The blues is wistful and has an element of pain, but it isn’t exactly sad the way that Kalinnikov and Willie Nelson are. Still, the emotional impact of the blues cliche is very different. The Dm7b5 chord similarly has three notes in common with Fm (F, A-flat and C). The Cdim7 chord has three notes in common with D7 (F-sharp, A, and C). “Way Way Back” is in F, but I’ve transposed the blues riff into C: It features prominently in a Duke Ellington tune called “Way Way Back,” as performed here by Abdullah Ibrahim: The descending chromatic feeling you get from D7 to Fm to C is related to a timeless blues riff. Here’s a mashup of Kalinnikov and Willie: Willie’s tune is in E, but again, I transposed into C for easier comparison. Nevertheless, the emotional effect is the same. The version of the progression in “I’d Have To Be Crazy” uses a different harmonic rhythm, and starts on the I chord instead of vi. I had the pleasure of performing this tune many times back in my country music days, and it makes a great lullaby for my kids. I mentally refer to this progression as the Willie Nelson turnaround, because I first heard it in his classic recording of “I’d Have To Be Crazy”, written by Steven Fromholz. It’s in the key of E-flat, but I transposed it into C for ease of understanding: If you listen to this piece at 6:16, there’s a particularly beautiful and tragic chord progression.
The short-lived Russian composer Vasily Kalinnikov is best known (to the extent he’s known at all) for this piece of music: See also the happiest chord progression ever.