Last Updated on 22 October 2023
Most popular music uses a 4/4 time signature. Some may use 3/4 but that a small minority.
However, the 7/8 (or 7/4) time signature (7 eighth-notes per measure) occasionally shows up in pop songs, folk songs, and even rock songs. It’s generally just for one measure and then back to 4/4, but sometimes it is used for an entire chorus or verse.
Here is a list of popular songs that make some use of a 7/8 or 7/4 time signature.
- 160 BPM (from “Angels & Demons”), by Hans Zimmer
- Aire, by Chicago
- All You Need Is Love, by The Beatles
- Anyone Who Had a Heart, by Dionne Warwick
- Atropos, by Emerson, Lake & Palmer
- Bananas, by Deep Purple
- Cinema, by Yes
- Dance on a Volcano, by Genesis
- Desert Island Disk, by Radiohead
- Diary of a Madman, by Ozzy Osbourne
- Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow, by Frank Zappa
- The Dragon, by Vangelis
- Ethiopia, by Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Flower Punk, by Frank Zappa
- Frame By Frame, by King Crimson
- Heart of Glass, by Blondie
- Jive Talkin’, by The Bee Gees
- Jocko Homo, by Devo
- Lightning Strikes, by Yes
- Limelight, by Rush
- March of the Pigs, Nine Inch Nails
- Marching Season, by Yanni
- Money, by Pink Floyd
- Mother, by The Police
- The Ocean, by Led Zeppelin
- Paranoid Android, by Radiohead
- Rubylove, by Cat Stevens
- Santorini, by Yanni
- Seven, by Dave Matthews Band
- Solsbury Hill, by Peter Gabriel
- Superconductor, by Rush
- Them Bones, by Alice in Chains
- Times Like These, by Foo Fighters
- Tom Sawyer, by Rush