Black and White Rag
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". The "Black and White Rag" is a 1908 ragtime composition by George Botsford.[1]
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]<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>[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]<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>[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
- <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>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
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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