TempoPeek

Bee Gees · Size Isn’t Everything

For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls is in E major at 164 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

164 BPM · Vivacemedian of 199 analyses · 164–164 across the middle eight tenths
Key
E major4 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
99%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
199people who ran the extractor
One beat
365.9milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
Dynamics
4.23dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.735Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
0.967Essentia'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

199 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 99% — put it in E major, a key signature of 4 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 199 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 164 BPM one beat lasts 365.9 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 91.5 ms and a dotted eighth 274.4 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 82 BPM, counted twice as fast 328. A score would mark that Vivace, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 434.2 Hz, which is 23 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 4.23 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 0.735 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 E 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 E major

Each of these differs from E 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 164 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note41463.40.68
Half note2731.71.37
Dotted quarter1.5548.81.82
Quarter note (one beat)1365.92.73
Quarter triplet0.667243.94.1
Dotted eighth0.75274.43.64
Eighth note0.5182.95.47
Eighth triplet0.3331228.2
Dotted sixteenth0.375137.27.29
Sixteenth note0.2591.510.93
Sixteenth triplet0.1676116.4
Thirty-second note0.12545.721.87

Half time 82 BPM · double time 328 BPM. Every row is one beat (365.9 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

The same title by somebody else

  1. For Whom the Bell TollsMetallicaE major118BPM

Matched on the title alone, so this list can hold a different song that happens to share a name. Nothing here claims one is a cover of the other.

Closest in key and tempo

  1. All This and Heaven TooFlorence + the MachineE major164BPM
  2. 6060–842The B‐52sE major164BPM
  3. This Is a CallFoo FightersE major164BPM
  4. Where Is My Mind?PixiesE major164BPM
  5. Safe From HarmMassive AttackE major165BPM
  6. That's Just the Woman in MeCéline DionE major165BPM
  7. Honey Don’tThe BeatlesE major163BPM
  8. Yesterday Once MoreCarpentersE major165BPM
  9. So UnsexyAlanis MorissetteE major165BPM
  10. Love So RightBee GeesE major162BPM

Recordings in E major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 164 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in E majorAll songs at 164 BPME major at 160–169 BPMBee Gees

MusicBrainz collapses 12 recording ids into this one. Recording id 6fdf2f99-1d8c-4227-a4e1-637012a794ea.