The thirty-two-bar form, often shortened to AABA, is a musical form common in Tin Pan Alley songs, later popular music including rock and pop music, and jazz, though "there were few instances of it in any type of popular music until the late teens," it became "the principal form" around 1925-1926 (Wilder 1972, p. 56, [1]).

"In this form, the musical structure of each chorus is made up of four eight-bar sections, in an AABA pattern...Thousands of Tin Pan Alley tunes share this scheme and Adorno is quite justified in arguing that to listeners of the time it would be totally predictable. Moreover, within the chorus, the identical music is heard" more than once: "it is, to use Adorno's phrase, 'the same familiar experience' that is emphasized (1941: 18)." (Middleton 1990, p.46)

The A section or verse is harmonically closed, usually cadencing on the tonic. The B section or middle eight is often referred to as the bridge and sometimes as the release. Modulation is common and the bridge remains harmonically open, often ending on the dominant of the home key, preparing the return of the verse (Covach, p.69).

Tin Pan Alley

Most Tin Pan Alley songs consisted of a verse or "sectional verse", and a refrain or "sectional refrain", often in thirty-two-bar form. The sectional verse is often omitted from modern performances and thus the refrain is often the only section remembered and heard. Perhaps the most recognizable example, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", however, consists of a full AABA scheme and a reprise of two verses and an ending based on the bridge material. (Covach 2005, p.70)

One example is "Down in Mexico Way", in which, "the A sections...are doubled in length, to sixteen bars - but this affects the overall scheme only marginally" (ibid)

Later rock and pop

Thirty-two-bar form was often used in rock in the 1950s and 60s, afterwhich verse-chorus form became more prevalent. Examples (ibid, 71) include:

• Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire" (1957)
• The Everly Brothers' "All I have to Do Is Dream" (1958)
• The Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me" (1960)
• The Beach Boys' "Surfer Girl" (1963), and
• the Beatles' "From Me to You" (1963) and "Hey Jude" (1968).

The Brill Building and other songwriters, such as Lennon-McCartney, often used modified thirty-two-bar forms, often modifying the number of measures in individual or all sections. Examples include (ibid, p.70):

• the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand"

Compound AABA form is the combination of a AABA like bridge (B) that contrasts and prepares the return of a verse-chorus pair (A). The Police's "Every Breath You Take" (1983), features a thirty-two-bar section, a contrasting bridge, and then a repeat of the thirty-two-bar section, making a compound of ABA and AABA form. Other examples include:

• Boston's "More Than a Feeling" (1976)
• Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (1964)
• Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" (1969)
• Tom Petty's "Refugee" (1979)

(ibid, p.74-75)

Sources

• Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335152759.
• http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/hbecker/pops.html
• Covach, John. "Form in Rock Music: A Primer", in Stein, Deborah (2005). Engaging Music: Essays in Music Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195170105.