Marc Cohn · Marc Cohn

Walking in Memphis

Walking in Memphis is in C major at 130 beats per minute.

Tempo

130 BPM · Allegromedian of 182 analyses · 129.9–130.1 across the middle eight tenths

Key: C majorno sharps and no flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 99%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 182people who ran the extractor
One beat: 461.5milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 440.3Hz · +1 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 6.92dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.339Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.031Essentia'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

182 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 99% — put it in C major, a key signature of no sharps and no flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 182 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 130 BPM one beat lasts 461.5 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 115.4 ms and a dotted eighth 346.2 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 65 BPM, counted twice as fast 260. 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 6.92 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 0.339 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 C 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 C major

Each of these differs from C 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 130 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	1846.2	0.54
Half note	2	923.1	1.08
Dotted quarter	1.5	692.3	1.44
Quarter note (one beat)	1	461.5	2.17
Quarter triplet	0.667	307.7	3.25
Dotted eighth	0.75	346.2	2.89
Eighth note	0.5	230.8	4.33
Eighth triplet	0.333	153.8	6.5
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	173.1	5.78
Sixteenth note	0.25	115.4	8.67
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	76.9	13
Thirty-second note	0.125	57.7	17.33

Half time 65 BPM · double time 260 BPM. Every row is one beat (461.5 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

The same title by somebody else

Walking in MemphisCherD major129BPM

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 C major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 130 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in C major All songs at 130 BPM C major at 130–139 BPM

MusicBrainz collapses 17 recording ids into this one. Recording id 361c3223-f4ab-4eef-839c-26b2093077a8.