Céline Dion · These Are Special Times

Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is in B flat major at 86.2 beats per minute.

Tempo

86 BPM · Andantemedian of 186 analyses · 86.1–86.2 across the middle eight tenths

Key: B♭ major2 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 100%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 186people who ran the extractor
One beat: 696.1milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 5.85dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.427Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 0.946Essentia'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

186 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 100% — put it in B flat major, a key signature of 2 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 186 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 86.2 BPM one beat lasts 696.1 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 174 ms and a dotted eighth 522 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 43.1 BPM, counted twice as fast 172.4. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 434.2 Hz, which is 23 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 5.85 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 0.427 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 86 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	2784.2	0.36
Half note	2	1392.1	0.72
Dotted quarter	1.5	1044.1	0.96
Quarter note (one beat)	1	696.1	1.44
Quarter triplet	0.667	464	2.15
Dotted eighth	0.75	522	1.92
Eighth note	0.5	348	2.87
Eighth triplet	0.333	232	4.31
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	261	3.83
Sixteenth note	0.25	174	5.75
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	116	8.62
Thirty-second note	0.125	87	11.49

Half time 43.1 BPM · double time 172.4 BPM. Every row is one beat (696.1 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

The same title by somebody else

Happy Xmas (War Is Over)John & Yoko / The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community ChoirA major146BPM

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 B flat major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 86 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in B flat major All songs at 86 BPM B♭ major at 80–89 BPM Céline Dion

MusicBrainz collapses 2 recording ids into this one. Recording id 9d0a98a9-ced4-4892-9be6-a1db0e329b25.