The 100 best pop/rock/etc songs in waltz time

"Cloudbusting" another example of a song that moves between 4 and 3.

I just noticed that the Byrds song I nominated in the first post all those years ago is actually 5/4 much of the time, only moving to 3/4 in certain sections. LOL. (Arguably making it *more* noteworthy, but not so great as an opening post re 3/4.)

Haha XP!!

xxxp I get you on the fuzziness of sheet music in this context. The canonical text for rock/pop is the recording, and different people can interpret it differently. Heck probably even different musicians who played on it interpreted it differently (such as the drummer vs the singer or guitarist).

yeah most triple meter rock songs are in 6/8 (or use a shuffle beat in 12/8 a la everybody wants to rule the world or never tear us apart). 3/4 time is less driving, it can feel a little stilted in a rock context. 6/8 swings, sounds great in power ballads (we are the champions, nothing else matters)

actually never tear us apart is def 6/8 isn't it?

I'd definitely say 12/8. The chords change once every twelve eighth notes (four beats), the melodic phrases are built around the 12 (or 4) groupings, the guitar plays at the beginning of each grouping of 12 when it enters.

When there is a standard rock backbeat that would be analysed as 4/4 at any other time, it generally seems most logical/natural to me to continue counting it as quadruple metre even if it is subdivided into triplets, so I tend to default to 12/8 in these situations unless there is a really compelling reason to count 6/8.

Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" feels like an actual triple metre to me: the drums are actually playing groups of 3, the chords change once every three beats. Agree with "Manic Depression" upthread as well.

The canonical text for rock/pop is the recording, and different people can interpret it differently. Heck probably even different musicians who played on it interpreted it differently (such as the drummer vs the singer or guitarist).

(I agree with this 100%, to be clear. Obv there are wrong interpretations but there can definitely be multiple credible interpretations.)

"Cloudbusting" moves between 4/4 and 6/4, sorry. Remembered wrong.