Take five

"Take Five" is a jazz standard composed by Paul Desmond and originally recorded in 1959¹ by the Dave Brubeck Quartet for their album Time Out. Written in quintuple time ( ), the composition is built around a distinctive blues-scale melody in E minor and a recurring two-chord vamp. It became the third track on Time Out, which was released by Columbia Records later that year. The track emerged after Quartet drummer Joe Morello challenged Desmond to compose a piece in . Brubeck arranged Desmond’s melodies around Morello’s rhythmic ideas, creating a work in ABA ternary form. Its title refers both to the quintuple meter and the colloquial expression "take five," meaning to take a short break. Released as a promotional single in September 1959, "Take Five" initially charted modestly but became a sleeper hit in 1961, eventually rising to international popularity. It went on to become the biggest-selling jazz single of all time and remains a staple of radio programming and live performance. Frequently covered by artists across genres, "Take Five" has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and is widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz standards ever recorded. In June 2026, CBS News included the song in its list of the 250 essential American songs of the past 250 years.

"Take Five" is a jazz standard composed by Paul Desmond and originally recorded in 1959 by the Dave Brubeck Quartet for their album Time Out. Written in quintuple time ( ), the composition is built around a distinctive blues-scale melody in E minor and a recurring two-chord vamp. It became the third track on Time Out, which was released by Columbia Records later that year. The track emerged after Quartet drummer Joe Morello challenged Desmond to compose a piece in . Brubeck arranged Desmond’s melodies around Morello’s rhythmic ideas, creating a work in ABA ternary form. Its title refers both to the quintuple meter and the colloquial expression "take five," meaning to take a short break. Released as a promotional single in September 1959, "Take Five" initially charted modestly but became a sleeper hit in 1961, eventually rising to international popularity. It went on to become the biggest-selling jazz single of all time and remains a staple of radio programming and live performance. Frequently covered by artists across genres, "Take Five" has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and is widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz standards ever recorded. In June 2026, CBS News included the song in its list of the 250 essential American songs of the past 250 years. ==Composition== "Take Five" is written in the key of E minor, in ternary (ABA) form and in quintuple ( ) time. According to Alfred Publishing's sheet music published at Musicnotes.com, the song has a moderately fast tempo of 176 beats per minute. The song is known for its distinctive two-chord piano/bass vamp (E m-B m 7 ), cool jazz saxophone melodies, drum solo, and unorthodox meter, from which Dave Brubeck derived its name. Desmond believed the borderline decision to retain his bridge melody was key to the tune gaining popularity. Rhythmically, the five beats to the bar are split unevenly into 3 + 2 quarter notes; that is, the main accents (and chord changes) are on the first and fourth beats. The album version has ten sections: ==Release and chart success== Although released as a promotional single on September 21, 1959, "Take Five" became a sleeper hit in 1961. In May 1961, the track was reissued for radio play and jukebox use, partly in response to its heavy rotation on the radio station WNEW in New York City. That year, it reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 (October 9), No. 5 on Billboards Easy Listening chart (October 23) and No. 6 on the UK Record Retailer chart (November 16). In 1962, it peaked at No. 8 both in the New Zealand Lever Hit Parade (January 11) and the Dutch Single Top 100 (February 17). The single is a different recording from the LP version and omits most of the drum solo. It became the first jazz single to surpass a million in sales, reaching two million by the time Brubeck disbanded his 'classic' quartet in December 1967. Columbia Records quickly enlisted "Take Five" in their doomed launch of the -rpm stereo single in the marketplace. Together with a unique stereo edit of "Blue Rondo à la Turk", they pressed the full album version in small numbers for a promotional six-pack of singles sent to DJs in late 1959. News of Brubeck's death on December 5, 2012, rekindled the popularity of "Take Five" across Europe, the single debuting in the Austrian Top 40 at No. 73 (December 14) and the French Singles Chart at No. 48 (December 15) while re-entering the Dutch charts at No. 50 (December 15). ==Track listing== ==Notes== ==References== ==External links== Licensed lyrics of this song at Genius

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