Alexander's Ragtime Band

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For the film of this name, see Alexander's Ragtime Band (film).

Cover, 1911 sheet music

"Alexander's Ragtime Band" is the name of a song by Irving Berlin. It was his first major hit, in 1911. There is some evidence, although inconclusive, that Irving Berlin borrowed the melody from a draft composition submitted by Scott Joplin that had been submitted to a publisher.^[1]

"Alexander's Ragtime Band" is not itself an example of the ragtime musical idiom; apart from some mild syncopation, it has almost none of ragtime's characteristic features. Nonetheless, the lyrics clearly refer to the arrival of African-American musicians on the popular scene with their then-new idea of playing standard songs in a more exciting up-tempo style.

The first lines establish the African-American context:

Oh ma honey . . . ain't you goin' to the leaderman, the ragged meter man

References to "jazzing up" popular music include:

They can play a bugle call like you never heard before

So natural that you want to go to war

That's just the bestest band what am, honey lamb

and:

If you care to hear the Swanee River played in ragtime

The new style included new ways of playing traditional instruments as well:

There's a fiddle with notes that screeches

Like a chicken

And the clarinet is a colored pet

This song was played on the decks of the Titanic by the ship's band, as the ship sank beneath the waters on April 15, 1912.

The song has been recorded by many artists, including Al Jolson, Billy Murray, Louis Armstrong, George Formby, Bing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters, Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ray Charles.

A 1938 film of the same name was loosely based on the song.

A version of the song set to a disco beat was recorded by Ethel Merman for her infamous Ethel Merman Disco Album in 1979.

The song was used in Tennessee politics by Lamar Alexander, a trained pianist, Governor of Tennessee and U.S. Senator, who performed the song for campaign events, including during his 1996 run for the Republican presidential nomination.