Take Five
Jazz standard recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet
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The track emerged after Quartet drummer Joe Morello challenged Desmond to compose a piece in 5
4. 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.
Background and recording
The Dave Brubeck Quartet's U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of Eurasia in 1958 inspired Brubeck to create an album, Time Out, that experimented with odd time signatures like ones he had encountered abroad. "Take Five" was composed after most of the album's music had been written. The Quartet's drummer, Joe Morello, frequently soloed in 5
4 times and asked Brubeck to compose a new piece to showcase his ability. Brubeck delegated Desmond to write a tune using Morello's rhythm. Desmond composed two melodies, which Brubeck arranged in ternary form.
The Quartet first tried recording "Take Five" on June 25, 1959. It proved so arduous that, after 40 minutes and more than 20 failed attempts, producer Teo Macero suspended the effort because one or another of the members kept losing the beat. This first iteration of the tune used a different rhythmic groove than the final version; it was "driving and fast" with a "lopsided Latin rhythm" while the final version has "a sexy 5/4 Take Five beat" which “sits in the groove”. They successfully recorded the final single and album track in two takes at the next session on July 1. Desmond considered the track a "throwaway". The Quartet first played "Take Five" for a live audience at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 5, 1959.
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Composition
"Take Five" is written in the key of E♭ minor, in ternary (ABA) form and in quintuple (5
4) 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♭m7), 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 Billboard's 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 33+1⁄3-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).
Future within the Quartet
Over the next 50 years the group re-recorded it many times, and typically used it to close concerts: each member, upon completing his solo, would leave the stage as in Haydn's Farewell Symphony until only the drummer remained ("Take Five" having been composed to feature Morello's mastery of 5
4 time). Upon his death from lung cancer in 1977, Desmond left the performance royalties for his compositions, including "Take Five", to the American Red Cross, which has since received payments averaging well over $100,000 a year.
Legacy
"Take Five" was positively received both in its release and current times and is the biggest-selling jazz single of all time. In 2020, The New York Times called the standard "among the most iconic records in Jazz". The single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1996. It has received subsequently replay in movie and television soundtracks, giving it continued radio airplay.
"Take Five" was played in a restaurant scene in the 1993 film Manhattan Murder Mystery.
Covers and adaptations
"Take Five" is considered a jazz standard and has been covered many times in a variety of genres. The first known cover was by Carmen McRae on the 1961 live album Take Five Live, supported by Brubeck, Gene Wright and Morello. For the recording, McRae sang lyrics written by Brubeck's wife Iola; these lyrics would later be used for other vocal recordings.
Desmond wrote and recorded the similar-sounding (and similarly named) composition "Take Ten" for his 1963 solo album Take Ten; he released another rendition of "Take Ten" on his 1973 album Skylark.
Grover Washington Jr. recorded a cover with the subtitle Take Another Five for his 1992 album Next Exit.
Jamaican saxophonist Val Bennett covered the song in 1968 in a roots reggae style, in 4
4 time, and retitled "The Russians Are Coming". Bennett's version became the theme of British television series The Secret Life of Machines in the late 1980s. Al Jarreau recorded an acclaimed scat version of the song for NDR Television in Hamburg, West Germany on October 17, 1975. Moe Koffman recorded a cover for his 1996 album Devil’s Brew. In 2011, a version by Pakistan's Sachal Studios Orchestra won widespread acclaim and charted highly on American and British jazz charts; Brubeck called it "the most interesting" version of Take Five he has heard. Canadian animator Steven Woloshen created the 2003 animated short film Cameras Take Five, which animated an improvised series of abstract lines and figures set to the song.
Track listing
Personnel
- Dave Brubeck – piano
- Paul Desmond – alto saxophone
- Gene Wright – upright bass
- Joe Morello – drums