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, a 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]

References

1. Jasen, David A.; Trebor Jay Tichenor (1989). Rags and Ragtime: A Musical History. Dover. p. 140. ISBN 0-486-25922-6.
2. Blesh, Rudi; Harriet, Janis (23 March 2011). The All Played Ragtime. Read Books Limited. ISBN 9781446546901. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
3. Sullivan, Steve (17 May 2017). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings Volume 3. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 19. ISBN 9781442254497. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
4. Sutton, Allan. Edison Two-Minute and Concert Cylinders: American Issues, 1897-1912 (PDF). Mainspring Press. ISBN 979-8-9893331-4-1.
5. Sutton, Allan. Ragtime on Records 1894–1950. The Worldwide Discography of Cakewalks, Rags, and Novelties on Cylinders and 78s (PDF). Mainspring Press.
6. "Black and White rag". UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
7. Jasen, David A. (15 October 2013). A Century of American Popular Music. Taylor & Francis. p. 23. ISBN 9781135352646. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
8. "WINIFRED ATWELL". Rockabilly.nl. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
9. "My Mother's Sheet Music - Winifred Atwell". My Mother's Sheet Music. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
10. Paterson, Jim. "Ragtime Music - its History, Composers and Influences". MFiles. Retrieved 21 December 2019.

Links

• The first known piano recording mentioned above can be heard here. http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=%40attr+1%3D1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder14960