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Our band (the singer) wants to do Joe Cocker's song Feelin' Alright. I'm trying to get the fingers & little brain to play the intro, but the rest of the song's accompaniment drives me nuts. Even one of the live versions on YouTube has the pianist starting it slow... I don't think it's for effect. The basic song is Gm and F, and i've tried throwing in some Am & Cm in spots, but it got me thinking with my limited experience... where can I find what chords go with other chords? or is it just trial and error?

About the question on what chords go with other chords, this is a good reference.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths

If a song goes in D major, then you can use D, G, A, Em, Bm and F#m. You can use other chords outside of that also, if it sounds good.
Do you know about tonic, subdominant and dominant yet?

In D major, D is the tonic, G is the subdominant and A is the dominant. If you look at the Circle of fifths, you can see that the tonic is in the middle (on the outer part) the subdominant is to the left and the dominant to the right of the tonic. So you can just look at the circle of fifths, or print it out, so you know what chords sounds good with other chords.

I just did a Google of:

joe cocker feelin alright chords

and got a bunch of guitar-chord arrangements. You should be able to use those as a guide to chords on piano.

. Charles

You gotta know the structure first, and that's a bit off, which could be where you're getting confused. The song is a sort of simplified blues pattern with 2 basic chords (C7 and F7). So your key is primarily C, but since it's blues, you will also have some Ebs and Bbs in there as well. Think more scales and notes than chords and I think you'll have more success.

I had this scored for me a few years ago. Just the rif but will make up nearly the entire thing. I never worked on it much, but hopefully may help.

Feelin' Alright - Joe Cocker

I do not think exact but should get you close.