Billy Joel · Glass Houses
Don’t Ask Me Why
Don’t Ask Me Why is in B flat major at 98.5 beats per minute.
Tempo
99 BPM · Andantemedian of 220 analyses · 98.4–98.6 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- B♭ major2 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 96%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 220people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 609.1milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 440.5Hz · +2 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 4.9dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.897Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.263Essentia'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
220 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 96% — put it in B flat major, a key signature of 2 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 220 readings; 96% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 98.5 BPM one beat lasts 609.1 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 152.3 ms and a dotted eighth 456.9 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 49.3 BPM, counted twice as fast 197. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 440.5 Hz, which is 2 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 4.9 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 0.897 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 B flat 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 B♭ major
Each of these differs from B♭ 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 99 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 2436.5 | 0.41 |
| Half note | 2 | 1218.3 | 0.82 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 913.7 | 1.09 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 609.1 | 1.64 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 406.1 | 2.46 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 456.9 | 2.19 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 304.6 | 3.28 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 203 | 4.93 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 228.4 | 4.38 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 152.3 | 6.57 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 101.5 | 9.85 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 76.1 | 13.13 |
Half time 49.3 BPM · double time 197 BPM. Every row is one beat (609.1 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- LoveLana Del ReyB♭ major99BPM
- Body Movin’Beastie BoysB♭ major99BPM
- Lean OnMajor Lazer × DJ Snake feat. MØB♭ major98BPM
- Don’t Tell ’EmJeremih feat. Y.G.B♭ major98BPM
- LoyalChris Brown feat. Lil Wayne & TygaB♭ major99BPM
- Strawberry Fields ForeverThe BeatlesB♭ major99BPM
- Settle for NothingRage Against the MachineB♭ major98BPM
- BetterKhalidB♭ major98BPM
- A Spaceman Came TravellingChris de BurghB♭ major99BPM
- Documenta XScannerB♭ major99BPM
Recordings in B flat major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 99 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in B flat majorAll songs at 99 BPMB♭ major at 90–99 BPMBilly Joel
MusicBrainz collapses 11 recording ids into this one. Recording id af7ca798-221f-4f62-ac89-a1d7ef8da665.