Overview
A Timeless Piece Born in 1902
Among the crown jewels of American ragtime, The Entertainer stands apart as the work that most vividly captures Scott Joplin's genius for melody and rhythm. Composed in 1902 and initially published by John Stark & Son of St. Louis, Missouri, it reached early audiences both as printed sheet music and — a decade later — as piano rolls played on mechanical pianos across the country.
Its first audio recording came in 1928, when the Blue Boys — a blues and ragtime duo — rendered the melody on mandolin and guitar, a pairing that suited Joplin's original dedication to "James Brown and his Mandolin Club." Music scholar Rudi Blesh noted how the composition's melodic lines seemed to evoke the bright, trembling timbre of small steel-string instruments.
"The best and most enjoyable of Joplin's compositions to date." — Monroe Rosenfeld, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 7, 1903
Musical Structure
Architecture of a Rag
Subtitled "A Rag Time Two Step", the piece follows a formal multi-section design that was characteristic of the ragtime dance repertoire of its day. Its architecture unfolds as:
The piece is anchored in C Major, with a striking harmonic detour in the Trio section (C) to F Major, before the final passage steers it home again. When Section B repeats, Joplin's own notation instructs the melody to be played an octave higher — a dynamic lift that gives the piece its characteristic surge of energy.
Legacy & History
From 1902 to a Cultural Landmark
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1902
Copyright registered on December 29, 1902 alongside two companion rags — A Breeze from Alabama and Elite Syncopations. All three were published by Stark Publishing. The original sheet music cover featured an illustration tied to the minstrel show culture of the era.
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1928
The Blue Boys lay down the first known recording, capturing the melody through the unusual pairing of mandolin and guitar — instruments that aligned with Joplin's original dedication.
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1970
Pianist Joshua Rifkin releases Scott Joplin: Piano Rags on Nonesuch Records — a classical imprint. The album moves 100,000 copies in its first year, eventually becoming Nonesuch's first album to surpass one million in sales. Critics would later credit Nonesuch with almost single-handedly reigniting interest in Joplin.
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1973
Composer Marvin Hamlisch adapts Joplin's themes for a major Hollywood film — taking home the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Adapted Score. The film's 1930s setting gave many viewers the mistaken impression that ragtime was music of that decade rather than a generation earlier.
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1974
Hamlisch's version of The Entertainer climbs to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaches the top spot on the Easy Listening chart. The New York Times reported that "the nation took notice." Record World magazine called Joplin's revival "a classic phenomenon of the decade."
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Today
Ranked 10th on the Recording Industry Association of America's celebrated "Songs of the Century" list, The Entertainer remains instantly recognizable around the world — and is still the tune most associated with ice cream parlors across the United States.
Publication
Copyright & Sheet Music
When John Stark & Son registered the copyright in December 1902, they did so alongside two other Joplin compositions, bundling all three under the Stark Publishing imprint. This firm also released a dedicated arrangement of The Entertainer scored for two mandolins and guitar — a nod to the very instruments Joplin had honored in his dedication.
Though the piece entered the public domain long ago, its influence on American popular music, film scoring, and classical performance practice is a legacy that belongs firmly to Scott Joplin — the self-described "King of Ragtime."