The Beatles · The Beatles

Helter Skelter

Helter Skelter is in G sharp minor at 165.3 beats per minute.

Tempo

165 BPM · Vivacemedian of 338 analyses · 165.1–165.4 across the middle eight tenths

Key: G♯ minor5 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 75%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 338people who ran the extractor
One beat: 363milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 438Hz · -8 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 4.74dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.9Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 0.996Essentia'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

338 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. A bare majority of them — 75% — put it in G sharp minor, a key signature of 5 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 338 readings; 92% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 165.3 BPM one beat lasts 363 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 90.7 ms and a dotted eighth 272.2 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 82.7 BPM, counted twice as fast 330.6. A score would mark that Vivace, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 438 Hz, which is 8 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 4.74 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 0.9 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 G sharp 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 G♯ minor

Each of these differs from G♯ 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 165 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	1451.9	0.69
Half note	2	726	1.38
Dotted quarter	1.5	544.5	1.84
Quarter note (one beat)	1	363	2.76
Quarter triplet	0.667	242	4.13
Dotted eighth	0.75	272.2	3.67
Eighth note	0.5	181.5	5.51
Eighth triplet	0.333	121	8.27
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	136.1	7.35
Sixteenth note	0.25	90.7	11.02
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	60.5	16.53
Thirty-second note	0.125	45.4	22.04

Half time 82.7 BPM · double time 330.6 BPM. Every row is one beat (363 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in G sharp minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 165 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in G sharp minor All songs at 165 BPM The Beatles

MusicBrainz collapses 47 recording ids into this one. Recording id 8717d821-88ef-4873-bd91-32a0b72ba415.