What key is this song in? Major or minor?
 

Hey...

I've been arguing with my friend telling him that Brenda Lee - All Alone Ami I is set in F major, but he was like it's actually in D minor. (Please check this song out on Youtube and tell me, because this site isn't allowing me to post links as I'm a newcomer).

Who is correct?

I wouldn't have necessarily posted this in the classical subforum, but I'm sure if a mod sees fit, they'll move this thread to whatever they think the appropriate forum is.

To answer your question about the specific song, my own perception tells me that it tends more toward F major, but more importantly, I don't think either of you are technically right or wrong. This song plays around a lot in both keys and kind of blurs the line between one and the other, and I think that's the point, really.

According to Wikipedia it's D minor. "All Alone Am I" is also not even remotely a classical song so I'm going to go ahead and move this to the pop section.

Sounds like its in D minor, but borrowing chords from the relative major key, which is F. D minor and F major are related because they have the exact same key signature, one flat (Bb).

I don't hear the raised 7th note which is used in minor keys most of the time, so that makes it hard to determine if it's really minor. But I DO hear the flattened 3rd in the tonic chord D minor, which is an F (in D major it would be F#).

So yeah, it's in D minor but most definitely borrowing chords from F major.

I'm sorry for making a complication. I just thought the classical section would have more trained people regarding keys and such. Thanks for advising me, anyway.