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I was trying to determine earlier today what song (that's well-known and had been on the charts from the 1960s onwards) uses the 3/4th beat... and I can't.

The closest (and the only one) I can determine is the non-chorus parts of the Beatles' Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

Anyone got any ideas?

Haunting (Somewhere In Time) by Kamelot. Reasonably popular within its sphere?

I think some of the older country music was in 3/4, but it's been so long since I've listened to any that I'm buggered if I can recall titles.

I'll pay attention while I'm listening to music for a while.

This will bug me...

lousy non-creative "popular music" songwriters... 3/4 is so much cooler than 4/4.

On a related note, the Mission Impossible theme song is in 5/4.

Stormy Pinkness by TMBG is in 3/4. I know because I have the live version from Berlin off the Dial-A-Song collection and it's live. They tell the crowd to "stomp along" and inform them of the beat to aid in the stomping.

According to this site, Nothing Else Matters by Metallica and Kiss From A Rose are, among others. I thought NEM was in 6/8, actually. But this is a pretty big list, so have a look.

Meeper wrote:According to this site, Nothing Else Matters by Metallica and Kiss From A Rose are, among others. I thought NEM was in 6/8, actually. But this is a pretty big list, so have a look.

Thanks. That's the motherlode, that is.

Billy Joel's Piano Man. I should have remembered that.

And yep, as Simplicius said there are a whole bunch of Country songs in there.

You know what's really cool? The verses to All You Need Is Love are in 7/8 time. (The chorus is in 4/4.) THIS, my friends, is why the Beatles are so much cooler than anyone writing music these days.

I always find myself liking triple or compound metered songs much better than the normal ones. Always.

Piano man is also in 3/4 time.

as for the beatles, most of their early stuff was cookie cutter 4/4 rock.

while the music in itself may have not been so popular, I seem ro recall that Insengard theme(from LOTR movies) had strange beat to it (just can't seem to what it was).

I have no idea where my LoTR soundtracks are, but from memory the Isengard theme is in 5/4, being a marchy percussive thing and all.

EDIT\ and it is!

Lord Revan wrote:while the music in itself may have not been so popular, I seem ro recall that Insengard theme(from LOTR movies) had strange beat to it (just can't seem to what it was).

According to my sister who digs the theme it's a 5/4.

And looking through a list of Sting's song, I'm pretty sure "Seven Days" from Ten Summoners' Tale is 3/4.

Edit: And his Soul Cages' "Island of Souls" too.

Gradius III SNES's "Accident Road" had the first "verse" in 3/4, and the second in 7/8... I think there were quite a few others with non 4/4 time in the Gradius series' soundtracks, I'll have to check.

Pink Floyd's "Money" is in 7/4ths time, the only pop song ever in that particular time signature.

If you want weird time signatures, here's the king of them: Dave Brubeck

The Incredible's theme song arrangement we're playing in Jazz Band is written in mostly 5/4 and 3/4.

And I've seen Dave Brubeck in concert. Amazing pianist, and his saxophone guy is awesome too.

I'm not sure of any particulars, but that list reminded me, Frank Zappa has some crazy shit.

We can also see a whole lot of Queen is in 3/4 or 6/8.

Ugh.
1) Piano Man is actually 6/8, not 3/4 (slight difference)
2) Lucy is 4/4 through the chorus. It's either 3/4, 3/8 or combo 12/8,15/8 through the versus. IIRC from my band days, it's 3/8 with 4/4,5/4 bar placing. (ie each bar is 3/8, and the bars are placed in a group of four followed by a group of five)

Other than that, there are some Barenaked Ladies songs that have some funky time signitures.

"Always With Me, Always With You" on Surfing with the Alien by Joe Satriani.

It's not 3/4 time but on his self-titled album(the second one I believe), Joe Satriani had 3 songs in 12/8: S.M.F., Slow Down Blues and Sittin' 'Round.

And Echo on Surfing with the Alien was in 5/4.

Disposable Heroes on Master of Puppets was in 6/4, well, the opening anyways. ...And Justice For All's opening was in 3/4.

Boot Hill on The Sky is Crying was in 12/8 as well. So was the title track. And Empty Arms, May I Have A Talk With You, Close to You and So Excited. If you're keeping score, that's 6 for 10.

Sorry, I'm a little bored tonight and started flipping through some of my tab books.

It's not exactly 'Popular', but Dream Theater can't get through a single song without using a strange time signiture at least once.

Im not much of a music master. How do you go about counting time signatures on a song?

Listen for the downbeat (the first beat in a bar). It's always the strongest beat in the bar, and is usually when you hear the kick drum. Then count the beats until the next downbeat.

To illistrate this a little further, 4/4 time has a beat pattern of strong, weak, medium, weak, whereas 3/4 has strong, weak, weak, and 6/8 has strong, weak, weak, medium, weak, weak.

You can also listen for cord progression. In 3/4, cord progression almost always occurs on either just the first beat or all three beats. In 4/4, it occurs on the first and third.

Barracuta by Heart is one of the most messed up time sigs in rock.

Barenaked Ladies' "When You Dream" from Stunt is either a 3/4 or a 6/8.