Scott Joplin: Piano Rags

Personnel

Track listing

1. "Maple Leaf Rag" (composed 1899) (3:13)
2. "The Entertainer" (1902) (4:58)
3. "The Ragtime Dance" (1908) (3:13)
4. "Gladiolus Rag" (1907) (4:24)

1. "Fig Leaf Rag" (1908) (4:38)
2. "Scott Joplin's New Rag" 1912) (3:07)
3. "Euphonic Sounds" (1909) (3:53)
4. "Magnetic Rag" (1914) (5:11)

Reception

The album was released in November 1970 and sold 100,000 copies in its first year and eventually became Nonesuch's first million-selling record. Record stores found themselves for the first time putting ragtime in the classical music section. The album was nominated in 1971 for two Grammy Award categories: Best Album Notes and Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra). The Billboard "Best-Selling Classical LPs" chart for 28 September 1974 has the record at #5, with the follow-up "Volume 2" at #4, and a combined set of both volumes at #3. Separately both volumes had been on the chart for 64 weeks. In 1979 Alan Rich in the New York Magazine wrote that by giving artists like Rifkin the opportunity to put Joplin's music on record Nonesuch Records "created, almost alone, the Scott Joplin revival."

In January 1971, Harold C. Schonberg, music critic at The New York Times, having just heard the album, wrote a featured Sunday edition article entitled "Scholars, Get Busy on Scott Joplin!" Schonberg's call to action has been described as the catalyst for classical music scholars, the sort of people Joplin had battled all his life, to conclude that Joplin was a genius.

Reissues

Nonesuch reissued the album on CD, with nine additional tracks.

Follow-up albums

Nonesuch followed up the album with Scott Joplin: Piano Rags, Vol. II and Scott Joplin: Piano Rags, Vol. III, both featuring Rifkin.