The Entertainer

"The Entertainer" is a 1902 classic piano rag written by Scott Joplin. It was sold first as sheet music by John Stark & Son of Saint Louis, Missouri, and in the 1910s as piano rolls that would play on player pianos. The first recording was by blues and ragtime musicians "the Blue Boys" in 1928, played on mandolin and guitar. As one of the classics of the ragtime genre, it returned to international prominence as part of the style revival in the 1970s, when it was used as the theme music for the 1973 Oscar-winning film The Sting. Composer and pianist Marvin Hamlisch's adaptation reached No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart and spent a week at No. 1 on the easy listening chart in 1974. The Recording Industry Association of America ranked it at No. 10 on its "Songs of the Century" list.