Black and White Rag

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Black and White Rag is a 1908 ragtime composition by George Botsford.

One of the best known versions of this piece of music was recorded in 1952 by pianist Winifred Atwell, and 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. The recording became a million selling gold record, and in the UK was later used as the theme tune for the long-running BBC2 television snooker tournament, Pot Black.

Black and White Rag was also later sampled for use as the music in the original 1985 BBC Computer game, Repton.

The tune has also become a fiddle standard with recordings by musicians such as Johnny Gimble and Bennie Thomasson.