TempoPeek

Beastie Boys · Licensed to Ill

Girls

Girls is in F major at 139.4 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

139 BPM · Allegromedian of 194 analyses · 139.3–139.7 across the middle eight tenths
Key
F major1 flat · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
100%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
194people who ran the extractor
One beat
430.4milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
440.3Hz · +1 cents from A 440
Dynamics
4.97dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.915Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1.205Essentia'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

194 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 100% — put it in F major, a key signature of 1 flat. The tempo printed above is the median of the 194 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 139.4 BPM one beat lasts 430.4 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 107.6 ms and a dotted eighth 322.8 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 69.7 BPM, counted twice as fast 278.8. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 440.3 Hz, which is 1 cents above concert A at 440 Hz — close enough to standard that a tuner would not argue. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.

The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 4.97 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 0.915 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 139 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note41721.70.58
Half note2860.81.16
Dotted quarter1.5645.61.55
Quarter note (one beat)1430.42.32
Quarter triplet0.667286.93.49
Dotted eighth0.75322.83.1
Eighth note0.5215.24.65
Eighth triplet0.333143.56.97
Dotted sixteenth0.375161.46.2
Sixteenth note0.25107.69.29
Sixteenth triplet0.16771.713.94
Thirty-second note0.12553.818.59

Half time 69.7 BPM · double time 278.8 BPM. Every row is one beat (430.4 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

The same title by somebody else

  1. GirlsThe 1975B major108BPM

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

  1. WinDavid BowieF major139BPM
  2. Low RiderWarF major140BPM
  3. SmoochMiles Davis QuartetF major140BPM
  4. TamePixiesF major139BPM
  5. Border Song (Holy Moses)Aretha FranklinF major140BPM
  6. Miles to Go (Before I Sleep)Céline DionF major139BPM
  7. UnmistakableBackstreet BoysF major140BPM
  8. Another Saturday NightCat StevensF major140BPM
  9. Little Lion ManMumford & SonsF major139BPM
  10. Thunder RoadBruce SpringsteenF major140BPM

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

All songs in F majorAll songs at 139 BPMF major at 130–139 BPMBeastie Boys

MusicBrainz collapses 9 recording ids into this one. Recording id f129d284-367d-47f0-bf75-b1a752a100ce.