Black And White Rag

All you want to know about Black And White Rag

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"Black And White Rag"
Cover, sheet music, 1908
Written by	George Botsford
Published	1908
Language	English
Form	Rag

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

The first known recording of this piece was by Albert Benzler, recorded on U-S Everlasting Cylinder 380 in about 1909. This recording is somewhat rare (U-S cylinders, though molded celluloid, were made in small batches) and significant.

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 arranged for use as the music in the original 1985 BBC Computer game, Repton and some of its sequels.

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