Eric Clapton · 461 Ocean Boulevard

I Shot the Sheriff

I Shot the Sheriff is in G minor at 94.4 beats per minute.

Tempo

94 BPM · Andantemedian of 180 analyses · 94.3–95.1 across the middle eight tenths

Key: G minor2 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 100%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 180people who ran the extractor
One beat: 635.6milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 435.2Hz · -19 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 4.81dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.735Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.113Essentia'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

180 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 100% — put it in G minor, a key signature of 2 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 180 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 94.4 BPM one beat lasts 635.6 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 158.9 ms and a dotted eighth 476.7 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 47.2 BPM, counted twice as fast 188.8. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 435.2 Hz, which is 19 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 4.81 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 0.735 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 G minor; 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 G minor

Each of these differs from G minor 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 94 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	2542.4	0.39
Half note	2	1271.2	0.79
Dotted quarter	1.5	953.4	1.05
Quarter note (one beat)	1	635.6	1.57
Quarter triplet	0.667	423.7	2.36
Dotted eighth	0.75	476.7	2.1
Eighth note	0.5	317.8	3.15
Eighth triplet	0.333	211.9	4.72
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	238.3	4.2
Sixteenth note	0.25	158.9	6.29
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	105.9	9.44
Thirty-second note	0.125	79.4	12.59

Half time 47.2 BPM · double time 188.8 BPM. Every row is one beat (635.6 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in G minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 94 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in G minor All songs at 94 BPM G minor at 90–99 BPM Eric Clapton

MusicBrainz collapses 212 recording ids into this one. Recording id 1a838100-d5b6-4bfa-b616-5e6b8bffa979.