Phil Collins · …But Seriously

Something Happened on the Way to Heaven

Something Happened on the Way to Heaven is in E flat major at 114.7 beats per minute.

Tempo

115 BPM · Moderatomedian of 201 analyses · 114.6–114.7 across the middle eight tenths

Key: E♭ major3 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 98%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 201people who ran the extractor
One beat: 523.1milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 443.3Hz · +13 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 3.5dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.871Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.253Essentia'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

201 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 98% — put it in E flat major, a key signature of 3 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 201 readings; 97% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 114.7 BPM one beat lasts 523.1 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 130.8 ms and a dotted eighth 392.3 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 57.4 BPM, counted twice as fast 229.4. A score would mark that Moderato, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 443.3 Hz, which is 13 cents above 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 3.5 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 0.871 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 E 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 E♭ major

Each of these differs from E♭ 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 115 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	2092.4	0.48
Half note	2	1046.2	0.96
Dotted quarter	1.5	784.7	1.27
Quarter note (one beat)	1	523.1	1.91
Quarter triplet	0.667	348.7	2.87
Dotted eighth	0.75	392.3	2.55
Eighth note	0.5	261.6	3.82
Eighth triplet	0.333	174.4	5.74
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	196.2	5.1
Sixteenth note	0.25	130.8	7.65
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	87.2	11.47
Thirty-second note	0.125	65.4	15.29

Half time 57.4 BPM · double time 229.4 BPM. Every row is one beat (523.1 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in E flat major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 115 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in E flat major All songs at 115 BPM E♭ major at 110–119 BPM Phil Collins

MusicBrainz collapses 14 recording ids into this one. Recording id 5de12918-4e37-433d-b2bd-7e72ec8ad4c9.