Everything about The Entertainer Rag totally explained
"
The Entertainer" is a
1902 piano
rag written by
Scott Joplin and published by
John Stark & Son.
It was also published in orchestration as part of "the Red Back Book" of "Standard High Class Rags" popular with ragtime bands.
One of the classics of ragtime, it returned to top international prominence as part of the ragtime revival in the 1970s when it was used as the
theme music for the
1973 Oscar-winning film
The Sting.
Marvin Hamlisch's adaptation reached number 3 on the
Billboard magazine Hot 100 music chart in 1974. (Curiously, the film "The Sting" was set in the 1930s, a full generation after then end of ragtime's mainstream popularity.)
Music
"The Entertainer" is sub-titled "A rag time two step", which was a form of
dance popular until about 1911, and a style which was common among
rags written at the time. It is written primarily in the key of C, although from bar 55 there's a section in F. It structurally follows the form A-B-A-C-D, with the melody indicated to be played an octave higher in the repeats.
Suggested by the rag's dedication to a Mandolin club, author
Rudi Blesh wrote that "some of the melodies recall the pluckings and the fast tremolos of the little steel-stringed plectrum instruments...".
Audio samples
Bunk Johnson and
Mutt Carey both made notable recordings of the number in the 1940s.
This song is widely used on TV.
Milton Berle sang this song with lyrics on The Muppet Show, "Now the curtain is going up, The Entertainer is taking a bow..."
Lyrics by: John Brimhall
Some ice cream trucks play a mechanical recording of a small section of the composition over and over again to alert customers to the truck's presence.
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Entertainer Rag'.
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