505
by Arctic Monkeys
- 144
- BPM
- C major
- Key
- 8B
- Camelot
- 52
- Danceability
- 0
- Acousticness
In April 2007 Arctic Monkeys closed their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, with "505". Alex Turner wrote it, and James Ford and Mike Crossey produced it. Turner plays Hammond organ on the studio recording, Miles Kane plays guitar, and Matt Helders drums a Motorik beat. Turner told NME it was "the first proper love song we've done", and fans have guessed that the lyrics refer to his then-girlfriend, Johanna Bennett.
The song first peaked at number 74 on the UK Singles Chart in 2007. It became a frequent closer of the band's live shows. Kane has joined them for it at TRNSMT in 2018 and on the last night of their three-day Emirates Stadium residency in June 2023. A live version recorded at the Royal Albert Hall on June 7, 2018, came out on November 19, 2020, and all proceeds from that album went to War Child.
In August 2022 "505" spread on TikTok through videos built around a soft grunge, 2014 Tumblr look. It reached number two on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 and number 94 on the Billboard Global 200, and it was the biggest indie song in the UK that year. By February 2026 it had 2.6 billion streams on Spotify.
505 runs at 144 BPM, the tempo of dubstep and trap counted in half time, and hardstyle. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.67 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 417 ms. It is in C major, Camelot 8B, which shares its notes with A minor and mixes cleanly with F major and G major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.