Annotation:Alexander's Ragtime Band

Find traditional instrumental music

A tin-pan-alley tune by Irving Berlin (popularized on the variety stage by Emma Carus) played by Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner for dances sometime after 1911, when the tune was first published. As many have pointed out, the tune itself is not in real ragtime. The Alexander of the title is reportedly one Jack Alexander, a coronet-playing bandleader who lived until 1958 (James J. Fuld, The Book of World Famous Music, 1971).