"Take Five" is a jazz piece composed by Paul Desmond and originally performed by the Dave Brubeck Quartet on its 1959 album Time Out. Recorded at Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio in New York City on July 1, 1959, two years later it became an unlikely hit and the biggest-selling jazz single ever. Included in numerous movie and television soundtracks, it still receives significant radio play. "Take Five" was for several years during the early 1960s the theme music for the NBC Today program, the opening bars being played half a dozen times or more each day.