Songs Like Take Five by Dave Brubeck
By Dan Cohen · Published 2026-09-05
Take Five reads intensity 43, dynamic range 6, and 170 BPM — layered, instrumental, mild in its shifts, tagged playful. It is by some distance the fastest recording in this comparison.
The honest caveat, first
What most people mean when they ask for songs like Take Five is the 5/4 time signature — that lopsided, walking-with-a-limp feel. We do not measure time signature. Our columns describe loudness, movement, abruptness and vocal force, so they cannot find you another song in five. What they can do is find records with the same lightness and the same restraint, which is the other half of why Take Five feels the way it does.
Every match below has a dynamic range of exactly 6
- Golden Years — David Bowie. Intensity 45, 113 BPM.
- Monday Morning — Fleetwood Mac. Intensity 41, 120 BPM.
- Paper Rings — Taylor Swift. Intensity 43 — identical to the seed — 120 BPM, with no sudden changes at all.
- Naughty Girl — Beyoncé. Intensity 44, 95 BPM.
- Me Porto Bonito — Bad Bunny. Intensity 43, 90 BPM.
- BMF — SZA. Intensity 42, 130 BPM.
- Dude (Looks Like a Lady) — Aerosmith. Intensity 41, 90 BPM.
That every one of them lands on a dynamic range of 6 is the real finding: this is a narrow, even-tempered band where nothing lunges at you. Take Five simply moves through it faster than the rest.
Take Five was written by Paul Desmond and recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet for Time Out (1959). Figures are our own measurements, read from the public API at build time. The genre and era spread is a consequence of measuring sound rather than style — it is not a claim that these artists resemble each other in any other way. No lyrics are reproduced.