Johnny Cash and The Tennessee Two · Johnny Cash With His Hot and Blue Guitar

Folsom Prison Blues

Folsom Prison Blues is in F major at 102.1 beats per minute.

Tempo

102 BPM · Andantemedian of 153 analyses · 101.8–111.1 across the middle eight tenths

Key: F major1 flat · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 77%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 153people who ran the extractor
One beat: 587.7milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 441Hz · +4 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 3.57dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.847Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.216Essentia'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

153 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 77% — put it in F major, a key signature of 1 flat. The tempo printed above is the median of the 153 readings; 66% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 101.8 to 111.1 BPM.

At 102.1 BPM one beat lasts 587.7 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 146.9 ms and a dotted eighth 440.7 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 51.1 BPM, counted twice as fast 204.2. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 441 Hz, which is 4 cents above concert A at 440 Hz — close enough to standard that a tuner would not argue. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.

The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 3.57 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 0.847 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 F 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 F major

Each of these differs from F 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 102 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	2350.6	0.43
Half note	2	1175.3	0.85
Dotted quarter	1.5	881.5	1.13
Quarter note (one beat)	1	587.7	1.7
Quarter triplet	0.667	391.8	2.55
Dotted eighth	0.75	440.7	2.27
Eighth note	0.5	293.8	3.4
Eighth triplet	0.333	195.9	5.11
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	220.4	4.54
Sixteenth note	0.25	146.9	6.81
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	97.9	10.21
Thirty-second note	0.125	73.5	13.61

Half time 51.1 BPM · double time 204.2 BPM. Every row is one beat (587.7 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

The same title by somebody else

Folsom Prison BluesJohnny CashF major111BPM

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

Recordings in F major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 102 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in F major All songs at 102 BPM F major at 100–109 BPM

MusicBrainz collapses 1 recording id into this one. Recording id 73ddec7a-f259-4942-a9b2-a7b928b0f593.