Take Five is an instrumental jazz standard composed by Paul Desmond, saxophonist of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Drummer Joe Morello wanted a piece that would showcase the 5/4 meter, and Brubeck asked Desmond to write one. The title refers both to the meter and to the colloquial phrase for a short break. The quartet recorded it on July 1, 1959, at CBS 30th Street Studio in New York City, with producer Teo Macero, and it appeared on the album Time Out. The tune is built on a blues-scale melody in E-flat minor over a recurring two-chord vamp, in an ABA form.
Columbia released it as a promotional single on September 21, 1959. It became the first jazz single to pass a million sales and is the biggest-selling jazz single of all time, reaching No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 6 in the UK. The recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1996. Many artists have covered the piece, including Al Jarreau, Carmen McRae, who sang lyrics written by Iola Brubeck, Chet Atkins, George Benson, Gerry Mulligan, Brubeck himself, and Grover Washington Jr. Desmond left his royalties to the American Red Cross.
