Irving Berlin copyrights the biggest pop song of the early 20th century
A century ago even before the phonograph had become a common household item there was already a burgeoning music industry in the United States based not on the sale of recorded musical performances but on the sale of sheet music.It was in the medium of printed paper and not grooved lacquer or vinyl discs that songs gained popularity in the first two decades of the 20th century and no song gained greater popularity in that era than Irving Berlins Alexanders Ragtime Band.Copyrighted on March 18 1911 Alexanders Ragtime Band was the multimillion-selling smash hit that helped turn American popular music into a major international phenomenon both culturally and economically.It may seem like a rather grand claim to make about a simple catchy tune but then as now simple and catchy were great virtues in the realm of pop music.
Most people first encountered Alexanders Ragtime Band when it was played on the piano by a friend or family member.This was the way that songs caught on in the era before radio and part of what helped Alexander catch on was its relative lack of complexity.Though nominally a ragtime tune anyone who plays the piano would quickly recognize the differences between it and a true rag like Scott Joplins The Entertainer which places some fairly significant demands on both the left and right hand.
Alexanders Ragtime Band is a vastly simpler piece for an amateur to master and this greatly encouraged sheet music sales which topped 1.5 million copies in the first 18 months after its publication.Though it gained worldwide popularity purely as a piece of printed sheet music innumerable recorded versions of Alexanders Ragtime Band would soon follow particularly after lyrics were added to what was originally an instrumental tune.Those lyricsCome on and hear Come on and hearand that tune are still familiar a century after they were written.Some of Irving Berlins later contributions to the American popular music canonsongs like White Christmas God Bless America and Theres No Business Like Show Businesseclipsed even the massive success of Alexanders Ragtime Band.
Its entirely possible however that those 20th-century classics would never have been written were it not for the commercial success that Irving Berlin achieved with the song he copyrighted on this day in 1911.
