Black and White Rag

The "Black and White Rag" is a 1908 ragtime composition by George Botsford.^[1]

"Black And White Rag"
Sheet music cover, 1908
Song
Published	1908
Genre	Ragtime
Songwriter(s)	George Botsford

The song was recorded widely for both the phonograph and player piano,^[2] and was the third ragtime composition to sell over one million copies of sheet music.^[3] Early recordings were typically by bands; the first recording was performed by the American Symphony Orchestra for an Edison cylinder release.^[4][5][a] The first known piano recording of the piece was by Albert Benzler, recorded on Lakeside/U.S.Everlasting Cylinder #380 in June 1911.^[6][5][a] This recording is somewhat rare (Lakeside/U.S.Everlasting cylinders, though molded celluloid on a wax/fiber core, were made in small batches).

Pianist Wally Rose revitalized interest in the song with his 1941 recording,^[7] leading to one of the best-known versions: a 1952 recording by Trinidadian pianist Winifred Atwell, which helped her to establish an international profile. Originally the B-side of another composition, "Cross Hands Boogie", "Black and White Rag" was championed by the popular disc jockey Jack Jackson, and started a craze for Atwell's honky-tonk style of playing.^[8] The recording became a million selling gold record, and in the United Kingdom was later used as the theme tune for the long-running BBC2 television snooker tournament, Pot Black.^[9]

"Black and White" Rag was also later arranged for use as the music in the 1985 BBC Computer game Repton and some of its sequels.^[10]

The piece has also become a fiddle standard since as early as the 1930s, with recordings by musicians such as Johnny Gimble and Benny Thomasson.

Notes

^a The first recording (and, additionally, first piano recording) is actually a part of "Fun at the Music Counter", a vaudeville skit recorded by Len Spencer; however this recording is arranged and not a complete musical recording of the song.^[5]