Aretha Franklin · This Girl's in Love With You

It Ain’t Fair

It Ain’t Fair is in G major at 129 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

129 BPM · Allegromedian of 154 analyses · 129–129 across the middle eight tenths
Key
G major1 sharp · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
100%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
154people who ran the extractor
One beat
465.1milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
438.7Hz · -5 cents from A 440
Dynamics
6.57dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.223Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1.038Essentia's danceability, 0–3

Source: AcousticBrainz, dump of 2022-06-23 (CC0) · MusicBrainz core data, 2026-09-17 (CC0) · how each number is measured. Measured up to 23.06.2022 — AcousticBrainz stopped collecting in 2022, so nothing released after that date is here.

What the numbers say

154 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 100% — put it in G major, a key signature of 1 sharp. The tempo printed above is the median of the 154 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 129 BPM one beat lasts 465.1 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 116.3 ms and a dotted eighth 348.8 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 64.5 BPM, counted twice as fast 258. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 438.7 Hz, which is 5 cents below concert A at 440 Hz — the sort of drift a tape machine or a slightly different mastering leaves behind. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.

The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 6.57 dB: that is how far the level wanders from its own average, so a small number means a loud, flat master and a large one means a recording that still breathes. Its average loudness is 0.223 on Essentia's 0-to-1 scale, which is not decibels and is not comparable to a streaming service's number.

10 other recordings here are in G major; the ones listed below are the closest in tempo.

Beats per bar are not in this dataset. AcousticBrainz's analysis reports a tempo, a key and a loudness, and no time signature at all, so this page does not print one — a 4/4 here would be a guess dressed as a measurement.

Keys that fit with G major

Each of these differs from G major by at most one accidental, or shares its tonic. That is the whole of what a mixing wheel encodes; here the relations are named instead of numbered.

Delay times at 129 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note41860.50.54
Half note2930.21.08
Dotted quarter1.5697.71.43
Quarter note (one beat)1465.12.15
Quarter triplet0.667310.13.23
Dotted eighth0.75348.82.87
Eighth note0.5232.64.3
Eighth triplet0.3331556.45
Dotted sixteenth0.375174.45.73
Sixteenth note0.25116.38.6
Sixteenth triplet0.16777.512.9
Thirty-second note0.12558.117.2

Half time 64.5 BPM · double time 258 BPM. Every row is one beat (465.1 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

  1. Where Do the Children Play?Cat StevensG major129BPM
  2. I Dream Myself Alivea‐haG major129BPM
  3. DreamsThe Allman Brothers BandG major129BPM
  4. No TimeThe Guess WhoG major129BPM
  5. HopeBjörkG major129BPM
  6. You Shook Me All Night LongAC/DCG major129BPM
  7. The Show Must Go OnPink FloydG major129BPM
  8. Lover’s RockThe ClashG major129BPM
  9. Wild Eyed Boy From FreecloudDavid BowieG major129BPM
  10. Dahomey DanceJohn ColtraneG major129BPM

Recordings in G major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 129 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in G majorAll songs at 129 BPMG major at 120–129 BPMAretha Franklin

MusicBrainz collapses 1 recording id into this one. Recording id 0376e211-5e28-414b-9ebe-0774e60f60f3.