George Michael · Listen Without Prejudice, Volume 1
Waiting for That Day / You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Waiting for That Day / You Can’t Always Get What You Want is in F major at 86.2 beats per minute.
Tempo
86 BPM · Andantemedian of 195 analyses · 86.1–86.3 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- F major1 flat · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 99%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 195people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 696.1milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 3.82dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.902Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.249Essentia'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
195 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 99% — put it in F major, a key signature of 1 flat. The tempo printed above is the median of the 195 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 3.82 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 0.902 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 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.
Closest in key and tempo
- Love Is LoveCulture ClubF major86BPM
- Rock the HouseGorillazF major86BPM
- Secret GardenBruce SpringsteenF major87BPM
- I’ve Gotta Get a Message to YouBee GeesF major87BPM
- Can I Holla At YaJ. ColeF major87BPM
- Time for ChangeMötley CrüeF major87BPM
- Over the RainbowIsrael KamakawiwoʻoleF major85BPM
- Do I Wanna Know?Arctic MonkeysF major85BPM
- XOBeyoncéF major85BPM
- Stay With MeSam SmithF major85BPM
Recordings in F major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 86 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in F majorAll songs at 86 BPMF major at 80–89 BPMGeorge Michael
MusicBrainz collapses 1 recording id into this one. Recording id 19e80099-2d6a-44e3-bb6d-53b278aa86f4.