Heard It in an Ad · Story 10
1973 · the film The Sting
How a 1902 rag reached No. 3 in 1974
More than half a century after its composer died, one film sent "The Entertainer" up the charts.
The piece in this story
A piano piece published in 1902 reached No. 3 on the American Billboard chart in 1974. Its composer had died more than half a century earlier.
Where you heard it
The 1973 film The Sting, with Paul Newman and Robert Redford as con men, used Scott Joplin's ragtime as its score. The composer Marvin Hamlisch adapted Joplin's pieces for the film and won an Academy Award for the music. Hamlisch's recording of "The Entertainer" climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The film is set in 1936, long after ragtime's heyday, a cheerful anachronism.
The real story
Joplin was called the King of Ragtime, but he died in 1917 without wide recognition. He even printed a warning on his scores that ragtime should never be played fast. In 1976 the Pulitzer Prize board gave Joplin a special citation.
Tell a friend
"The Entertainer" is from 1902, and thanks to The Sting it reached number three on the charts fifty-seven years after Joplin died.
Scott Joplinc. 1868–1917Read the story of Joplin →