TempoPeek

Bob Dylan · Highway 61 Revisited

Like a Rolling Stone

Like a Rolling Stone is in C major at 95.6 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

96 BPM · Andantemedian of 155 analyses · 95.6–96 across the middle eight tenths
Key
C majorno sharps and no flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
96%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
155people who ran the extractor
One beat
627.6milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
438.2Hz · -7 cents from A 440
Dynamics
2.63dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.878Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1.065Essentia'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

155 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 96% — put it in C major, a key signature of no sharps and no flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 155 readings; 99% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 95.6 BPM one beat lasts 627.6 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 156.9 ms and a dotted eighth 470.7 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 47.8 BPM, counted twice as fast 191.2. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 438.2 Hz, which is 7 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 2.63 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 0.878 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 C 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 C major

Each of these differs from C 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 96 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note42510.50.4
Half note21255.20.8
Dotted quarter1.5941.41.06
Quarter note (one beat)1627.61.59
Quarter triplet0.667418.42.39
Dotted eighth0.75470.72.12
Eighth note0.5313.83.19
Eighth triplet0.333209.24.78
Dotted sixteenth0.375235.44.25
Sixteenth note0.25156.96.37
Sixteenth triplet0.167104.69.56
Thirty-second note0.12578.512.75

Half time 47.8 BPM · double time 191.2 BPM. Every row is one beat (627.6 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

The same title by somebody else

  1. Like a Rolling StoneThe Rolling StonesC major102BPM

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. First Dateblink‐182C major96BPM
  2. RegulateWarren G feat. Nate DoggC major96BPM
  3. SmileLily AllenC major96BPM
  4. Stormy May DayAC/DCC major96BPM
  5. Be Like That3 Doors DownC major96BPM
  6. JinxGreen DayC major96BPM
  7. Hello HoorayAlice CooperC major95BPM
  8. HotBlack Eyed Peas fea. Kim HillC major96BPM
  9. So Far (It’s Alright)The 1975C major96BPM
  10. Sticky SweetMötley CrüeC major95BPM

Recordings in C major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 96 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in C majorAll songs at 96 BPMC major at 90–99 BPMBob Dylan

MusicBrainz collapses 466 recording ids into this one. Recording id 26244520-0e1d-4d42-b101-ce6b83299d33.