TempoPeek

Neil Diamond · Tap Root Manuscript

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother is in A major at 142 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

142 BPM · Allegromedian of 144 analyses · 140.8–142 across the middle eight tenths
Key
A major3 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
100%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
144people who ran the extractor
One beat
422.5milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
441.8Hz · +7 cents from A 440
Dynamics
4.67dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.698Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1.036Essentia'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

144 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 100% — put it in A major, a key signature of 3 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 144 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 140.8 to 142 BPM.

At 142 BPM one beat lasts 422.5 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 105.6 ms and a dotted eighth 316.9 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 71 BPM, counted twice as fast 284. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 441.8 Hz, which is 7 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 4.67 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 0.698 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 A 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 A major

Each of these differs from A 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 142 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note41690.10.59
Half note2845.11.18
Dotted quarter1.5633.81.58
Quarter note (one beat)1422.52.37
Quarter triplet0.667281.73.55
Dotted eighth0.75316.93.16
Eighth note0.5211.34.73
Eighth triplet0.333140.87.1
Dotted sixteenth0.375158.56.31
Sixteenth note0.25105.69.47
Sixteenth triplet0.16770.414.2
Thirty-second note0.12552.818.93

Half time 71 BPM · double time 284 BPM. Every row is one beat (422.5 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

  1. Crawling Back to YouBackstreet BoysA major142BPM
  2. Across the UniverseDavid BowieA major142BPM
  3. The Perfect FanBackstreet BoysA major142BPM
  4. James DeanEaglesA major141BPM
  5. Throw That Beat in the Garbage CanThe B‐52’sA major141BPM
  6. Four SticksLed ZeppelinA major143BPM
  7. Our HouseCrosby, Stills, Nash & YoungA major141BPM
  8. Oliver’s ArmyElvis Costello & The AttractionsA major143BPM
  9. (I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, DearBlondieA major143BPM
  10. Blow OutRadioheadA major141BPM

Recordings in A major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 142 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in A majorAll songs at 142 BPMA major at 140–149 BPMNeil Diamond

MusicBrainz collapses 11 recording ids into this one. Recording id 77955bcf-c224-4c9e-811e-c62253091bde.