Barbra Streisand · The Way We Were

The Way We Were

The Way We Were is in A major at 139.2 beats per minute.

Tempo

139 BPM · Allegromedian of 131 analyses · 138.9–139.6 across the middle eight tenths

Key: A major3 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 94%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 131people who ran the extractor
One beat: 431milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 442.4Hz · +9.5 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 6.18dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.341Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 0.92Essentia'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

131 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 94% — put it in A major, a key signature of 3 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 131 readings; 92% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 139.2 BPM one beat lasts 431 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 107.8 ms and a dotted eighth 323.3 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 69.6 BPM, counted twice as fast 278.4. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 442.4 Hz, which is 9.5 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 6.18 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 0.341 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 139 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	1724.1	0.58
Half note	2	862.1	1.16
Dotted quarter	1.5	646.6	1.55
Quarter note (one beat)	1	431	2.32
Quarter triplet	0.667	287.4	3.48
Dotted eighth	0.75	323.3	3.09
Eighth note	0.5	215.5	4.64
Eighth triplet	0.333	143.7	6.96
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	161.6	6.19
Sixteenth note	0.25	107.8	9.28
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	71.8	13.92
Thirty-second note	0.125	53.9	18.56

Half time 69.6 BPM · double time 278.4 BPM. Every row is one beat (431 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in A major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 139 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in A major All songs at 139 BPM A major at 130–139 BPM

MusicBrainz collapses 26 recording ids into this one. Recording id a67f1df9-e19f-4fa9-bbc8-b87b1dd76977.