The album was selected, in 2005, for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The album was intended as an experiment using musical styles Brubeck discovered abroad while on a United States Department of State sponsored tour of Eurasia, such as when he observed in Turkey a group of street musicians performing a traditional Turkish folk song that was played in 98 time with subdivisions of 2+2+2+3, a rare meter for Western music.

[14] On the condition that Brubeck's group first record a conventional album of traditional songs of the American South, Gone with the Wind,[15] Columbia president Goddard Lieberson took a chance to underwrite and release Time Out.

[16] It produced a Top 40 hit single in "Take Five", composed by Paul Desmond (the only album track not written by Dave Brubeck).

[10][17] "Strange Meadow Lark" begins with a piano solo that exhibits no clear time signature, but then settles into a fairly ordinary 44 swing once the rest of the group joins.

"Kathy's Waltz", named after Brubeck's daughter Cathy but misspelled, starts in 44, and only later switches to double-waltz time before merging the two.

In an article for The Independent, Spencer Leigh speculated that "Kathy's Waltz" later inspired the Beatles song "All My Loving" (written by Paul McCartney, credited to Lennon/McCartney).

In addition to the complete album, the Legacy Edition includes a bonus disc featuring previously unreleased concert recordings of the same Brubeck Quartet from the 1961, 1963, and 1964 gatherings of Newport Jazz Festival.

[citation needed] Singles Billboard (United States) Sales and certifications Time Out was the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies.