TempoPeek

Aretha Franklin with George Michael · Aretha

I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me)

I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me) is in E major at 108 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

108 BPM · Moderatomedian of 287 analyses · 107.9–108 across the middle eight tenths
Key
E major4 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
98%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
287people who ran the extractor
One beat
555.6milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
438.7Hz · -5 cents from A 440
Dynamics
4.51dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.817Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1.176Essentia'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

287 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 98% — put it in E major, a key signature of 4 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 287 readings; 98% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 108 BPM one beat lasts 555.6 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 138.9 ms and a dotted eighth 416.7 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 54 BPM, counted twice as fast 216. A score would mark that Moderato, 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 4.51 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 0.817 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 E 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 E major

Each of these differs from E 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 108 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note42222.20.45
Half note21111.10.9
Dotted quarter1.5833.31.2
Quarter note (one beat)1555.61.8
Quarter triplet0.667370.42.7
Dotted eighth0.75416.72.4
Eighth note0.5277.83.6
Eighth triplet0.333185.25.4
Dotted sixteenth0.375208.34.8
Sixteenth note0.25138.97.2
Sixteenth triplet0.16792.610.8
Thirty-second note0.12569.414.4

Half time 54 BPM · double time 216 BPM. Every row is one beat (555.6 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

  1. PhotographEd SheeranE major108BPM
  2. Heart’s Done TimeAerosmithE major108BPM
  3. Aún existe amorCéline DionE major108BPM
  4. Midlife CrisisFaith No MoreE major108BPM
  5. Waterloo SunsetThe KinksE major108BPM
  6. CologneHauxE major108BPM
  7. Voodoo People (Dust Brothers remix)The ProdigyE major108BPM
  8. Prodigal SonThe Rolling StonesE major108BPM
  9. New Kid in TownEaglesE major108BPM
  10. Cruel SummerBananaramaE major108BPM

Recordings in E major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 108 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in E majorAll songs at 108 BPME major at 100–109 BPM

MusicBrainz collapses 1 recording id into this one. Recording id c44dc5d0-7c4a-4629-8d1e-f5268a8f7bae.