Aretha Franklin · Lady Soul

Come Back Baby

Come Back Baby is in F major at 163 beats per minute.

Tempo

163 BPM · Vivacemedian of 309 analyses · 162.9–163.1 across the middle eight tenths

Key: F major1 flat · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 98%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 309people who ran the extractor
One beat: 368.1milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 438.7Hz · -5 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 3.89dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.899Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.116Essentia'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

309 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 98% — put it in F major, a key signature of 1 flat. The tempo printed above is the median of the 309 readings; 97% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 163 BPM one beat lasts 368.1 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 92 ms and a dotted eighth 276.1 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 81.5 BPM, counted twice as fast 326. A score would mark that Vivace, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 438.7 Hz, which is 5 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 3.89 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 0.899 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 163 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	1472.4	0.68
Half note	2	736.2	1.36
Dotted quarter	1.5	552.1	1.81
Quarter note (one beat)	1	368.1	2.72
Quarter triplet	0.667	245.4	4.08
Dotted eighth	0.75	276.1	3.62
Eighth note	0.5	184	5.43
Eighth triplet	0.333	122.7	8.15
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	138	7.24
Sixteenth note	0.25	92	10.87
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	61.3	16.3
Thirty-second note	0.125	46	21.73

Half time 81.5 BPM · double time 326 BPM. Every row is one beat (368.1 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

The same title by somebody else

Come Back BabyRay CharlesE♭ major129BPM

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 163 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in F major All songs at 163 BPM F major at 160–169 BPM Aretha Franklin

MusicBrainz collapses 4 recording ids into this one. Recording id 7d9b85a3-4a78-41ab-9c47-57e2f1f90b1a.