Billy Joel · The Stranger

The Stranger

The Stranger is in E minor at 91.8 beats per minute.

Tempo

92 BPM · Andantemedian of 139 analyses · 91.7–91.9 across the middle eight tenths

Key: E minor1 sharp · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 95%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 139people who ran the extractor
One beat: 653.6milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 441.5Hz · +6 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 7.97dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.333Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.246Essentia'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

139 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 95% — put it in E minor, a key signature of 1 sharp. The tempo printed above is the median of the 139 readings; 99% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 91.8 BPM one beat lasts 653.6 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 163.4 ms and a dotted eighth 490.2 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 45.9 BPM, counted twice as fast 183.6. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 441.5 Hz, which is 6 cents above 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 7.97 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 0.333 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 minor; 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 minor

Each of these differs from E minor 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 92 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	2614.4	0.38
Half note	2	1307.2	0.76
Dotted quarter	1.5	980.4	1.02
Quarter note (one beat)	1	653.6	1.53
Quarter triplet	0.667	435.7	2.3
Dotted eighth	0.75	490.2	2.04
Eighth note	0.5	326.8	3.06
Eighth triplet	0.333	217.9	4.59
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	245.1	4.08
Sixteenth note	0.25	163.4	6.12
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	108.9	9.18
Thirty-second note	0.125	81.7	12.24

Half time 45.9 BPM · double time 183.6 BPM. Every row is one beat (653.6 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in E minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 92 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in E minor All songs at 92 BPM E minor at 90–99 BPM Billy Joel

MusicBrainz collapses 20 recording ids into this one. Recording id 9c3af90e-2487-4706-a1c7-3c963ee4579e.