With Brubeck on piano, Paul Desmond on alto saxophone, bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello, the LP hit no 2 on the US charts and stayed in there for more than three years and became the first jazz album to sell a million copies.

"Take Five", the surprise radio hit from Time Out would enter the record books as the first million-selling jazz instrumental single on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Blue Rondo a la Turk" would become an instant classic.

Brubeck had enjoyed successes before - five years earlier he had been the first jazz musician to have his picture on the cover of Time magazine - but this project made everything else in his career seem like a mere warm-up.