Thirty-two-bar form

The thirty-two-bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the twentieth century.

Examples of thirty-two-bar AABA form songs include:

"Over the Rainbow," "What'll I Do," "Make You Feel My Love," and "Blue Skies." Other examples include Willie Nelson's "Crazy".

Basic Song Form

At its core the basic AABA / 32 Bar Song Form consists of four sections, each section being 8 bars in length, totaling thirty-two bars. Each of these 8-bar sections is assigned a letter name ("A" or "B"), based on its melodic and harmonic content. The A sections all share the same melody, and the recurring title lyric typically falls on either the first or last line of each A section. The "B" section musically and lyrically contrasts the A sections, and may or may not contain the title lyric.

(Note: Song Form terminology is not yet standardized. The B section is also referred to as the "Middle Eight," "Bridge," or "Primary Bridge."