Bee Gees · Trafalgar

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is in E major at 68.8 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

69 BPM · Adagiomedian of 232 analyses · 68.7–69 across the middle eight tenths
Key
E major4 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
96%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
232people who ran the extractor
One beat
872.1milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
Dynamics
5.48dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.516Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1Essentia'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

232 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 96% — put it in E major, a key signature of 4 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 232 readings; 95% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 68.8 BPM one beat lasts 872.1 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 218 ms and a dotted eighth 654.1 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 34.4 BPM, counted twice as fast 137.6. A score would mark that Adagio, 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 5.48 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 0.516 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 69 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note43488.40.29
Half note21744.20.57
Dotted quarter1.51308.10.76
Quarter note (one beat)1872.11.15
Quarter triplet0.667581.41.72
Dotted eighth0.75654.11.53
Eighth note0.54362.29
Eighth triplet0.333290.73.44
Dotted sixteenth0.3753273.06
Sixteenth note0.252184.59
Sixteenth triplet0.167145.36.88
Thirty-second note0.1251099.17

Half time 34.4 BPM · double time 137.6 BPM. Every row is one beat (872.1 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

The same title by somebody else

  1. How Can You Mend a Broken HeartAl GreenE major148BPM
  2. How Can You Mend a Broken HeartMichael BubléD♭ major72BPM

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. GoodbyeAlicia KeysE major70BPM
  2. T-ShirtDestiny’s ChildE major72BPM
  3. MineThe 1975E major75BPM
  4. The TouristRadioheadE major76BPM
  5. Just Like a WomanBob DylanE major77BPM
  6. ShiverColdplayE major78BPM
  7. Up All NightDrake feat. Nicki MinajE major78BPM
  8. Art DecadeDavid BowieE major78BPM
  9. Brothers in ArmsDire StraitsE major79BPM
  10. Good Ass IntroChance the Rapper feat. BJ the Chicago Kid, Lili K., Kiara Lanier, Peter Cottontale, Will for The O'mys & JP Floyd for Kids These DaysE major80BPM

Recordings in E major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 69 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in E majorBee Gees

MusicBrainz collapses 50 recording ids into this one. Recording id 03473a18-a846-4717-81ae-fc1755210dc5.