The Entertainer

The Entertainer was published in St Louis in 1902 by John Stark, subtitled A Rag Time Two Step and dedicated to James Brown and his Mandolin Club. It sold steadily in sheet music but never approached the Maple Leaf Rag, and Joplin died in 1917 with his reputation largely gone. The revival came seventy years after publication: Marvin Hamlisch's arrangement for the 1973 film The Sting reached the top of the American singles chart, and the rag has been in general circulation ever since — a piece written for the parlour piano that now turns up in every kind of arrangement.