Alexander's Ragtime Band

{{further|Irving Berlin|Ted Snyder|Tin Pan Alley}}

{{multiple image

| perrow = 2

| total_width = 300

| align = right

| image1 = Irving Berlin 1906 Cropped.jpg

| alt1 = A photograph of composer Irving Berlin circa 1906

| width1 = 150

| image2 = Emma_Carus_1.jpg

| alt2 = A photograph of singer Emma Carus

| width2 = 150

| footer = Composer Irving Berlin and singer Emma Carus

}}

In March 1911, the Ted Snyder Company in New York City employed the 23-year-old Irving Berlin as a Tin Pan Alley songwriter.{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=31}} One morning after arriving at work, Berlin decided to compose an instrumental ragtime number.{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=31}} By this time, the ragtime phenomenon popularized by pianist Scott Joplin and other African-American musicians had begun to wane,{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=29}} and over a decade had passed since the syncopated genre's initial heyday in the Gay Nineties.{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=31}}

A tireless workaholic, Berlin composed the piece while in the noisy offices of Ted Snyder's music publishing firm where "five or six pianos and as many vocalists were making bedlam with songs of the day."{{sfn|Hamm|2012|p=49}} Berlin composed the lyrics of the song as a narrative sequel to his earlier 1910 composition "Alexander and His Clarinet".{{sfnm|Kaplan|2020|1pp=40–41|Giddins|1998|2p=41}} This earlier composition recounts the reconciliation between an African-American musician named Alexander Adams and his flame Eliza Johnson as well as highlights Alexander's innovative musical style.{{efn|name=Alexander and His Clarinet|{{harvnb|Kaplan|2020|p=41}}: "In May [1910], Snyder and Berlin published one of their own, 'Alexander and His Clarinet,' a... dialogue between a colored Romeo and his Juliet, with a barely submerged Freudian subtext: 'For lawdy sake [the female character sang], don't dare to go, / My pet, I love you yet, / And then besides, I love your clarinet."}}{{sfn|Kaplan|2020|pp=40–41}} Berlin's friend Jack Alexander, a cornet-playing African-American bandleader, inspired the title character.{{sfnm|Streissguth|2011|1p=30|Fuld|2000|2p=91|Freedland|1988|3p=65}}

By the next day, Berlin completed four pages of notes for the copyist-arranger.{{sfnm|Jablonski|2012|1p=32|Ruhlmann|2005|2p=23}} Berlin registered the song in the name of the Ted Snyder Company as E252990 and published it on March 18, 1911.{{sfnm|Hamm|2012|1p=48|Fuld|2000|2p=91}} Upon playing the composition for others,{{sfnm|Giddins|1998|1p=41|Jablonski|2012|2p=33}} listeners criticized the song as too lengthy ("running beyond the conventional 32 bars"), too rangy, and not "a real ragtime number".{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=33}} In fact, the tune is a march as opposed to a rag and barely contains a trace of syncopation.{{sfn|Furia|1992|p=49}} Its sole notability consists of quotes from Swanee River and a bugle call.{{sfn|Corliss|2001}} Due to such criticisms, the tune unimpressed listeners at the Ted Snyder Company.{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=33}}

{{multiple image

| perrow = 2

| total_width = 300

| align = left

| image1 = ArthurCollins.jpg

| alt1 = A photograph of Arthur Collins

| width1 = 150

| image2 = Harlan LCCN2014708742 Cropped and Retouched.jpg

| alt2 = A photograph of Byron G. Harlan

| width2 = 150

| footer = Collins & Harlan released the first phonograph recording of the song in May 1911.

}}

Undaunted by the lackluster response, Berlin submitted the song to Jesse L. Lasky, a Broadway theater producer planning an extravagant debut for his nightclub theater called the Follies Bergère.{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=33}} Lasky hesitated to incorporate the pseudo-ragtime number into his show.{{sfnm|Jablonski|2012|1p=33|Hamm|2012|2p=51}} When the show opened on April 27, 1911, Lasky chose only to use its melody whistled by performer Otis Harlan.{{sfnm|Jablonski|2012|1p=33|Hamm|2012|2p=51}} Thus the song failed to find an appreciative audience.{{sfnm|Jablonski|2012|1p=33|Hamm|2012|2p=49}}

Fortunately for Berlin, vaudeville singer and baritone Emma Carus liked his humorous composition, and she introduced the song on April 18, 1911, at the American Music Hall in Chicago.{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=34}} She next embarked on a tour of the Midwest in Spring 1911.{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=34}} Consequently, music historians credit Carus for showcasing the song to the country and helping contribute to its immense popularity.{{sfn|Furia|Patterson|2016|p=73}} In gratitude, Berlin credited Carus on the cover of the sheet music.{{sfn|Furia|Patterson|2016|p=73}} The catchy song became indelibly linked with Carus in the public consciousness, although rival performers such as Al Jolson later co-opted the hit tune.{{sfn|Bergreen|1990|p=67}}

{{Listen|type=music|filename=Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan - Alexander's Ragtime Band - 1911.ogg|title="Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1911)|description=The May 23, 1911, recording by comedic duo Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan.|start=0:01|pos=right|format=Ogg}}

Amid the success of Carus' national tour, the comedic duo of Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan released a phonograph recording of the song on May 23, 1911, which became the best-selling record in the United States for ten consecutive weeks.{{sfn|Ruhlmann|2005|p=23}} Five days later, Berlin performed the song himself on May 28, 1911, in a special charity performance of the first Friars Frolic by the New York Friars Club at the New Amsterdam Theater.{{sfnm|Jablonski|2012|1p=33|Hamm|2012|2p=48}} A fellow composer in attendance, George M. Cohan, instantly recognized the catchiness of the tune and told Berlin that the song would be an obvious hit.{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|pp=33-34}} Soon after, Berlin's jaunty melody "sold a million copies of sheet music in 1911, then another million in 1912, and continued to sell for years afterwards."{{sfn|Furia|Patterson|2016|p=73}} Alexander's Ragtime Band became "the number one song from October 1911 through January 1912."{{sfn|Furia|Patterson|2016|p=73}}

{{further|Ragtime|Irene and Vernon Castle}}

{{quote box|title=A Meritorious Addition|align=left|width=24em|quote="In a few days, 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' will be whistled on the streets and played in the cafés. It is the most meritorious addition to the list of popular songs introduced this season. The vivacious comedienne [Emma Carus] had her audience singing the choruses with her, and those who did not sing, whistled."|source= —The New York Sun, May 1911{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=34}}}}

Although neither Irving Berlin's first commercial hit nor his first composition to attract international attention, "Alexander's Ragtime Band" nevertheless catapulted Berlin's career.{{sfnm|1a1=Furia|1a2=Patterson|1y=2016|1p=73|2a1=Furia|2y=1992|2p=49}} American newspapers hailed Berlin's jumpy tune as the decade's musical sensation,{{sfn|Bergreen|1990|p=68}} and he became a cultural luminary over night.{{sfn|Corliss|2001}} An adoring international press subsequently touted him as the "King of Ragtime",{{sfnm|Giddins|1998|1p=31|Golden|2007|2p=54}} an inaccurate title as the song "had little to do with ragtime and everything to do with ragtime audacity, alerting Europe to hot times in the colonies."{{sfn|Giddins|1998|p=31}} Baffled by this new title, Berlin publicly insisted that he did not originate ragtime but merely "crystallized it and brought it to people's attention."{{sfn|Jablonski|2012|p=36}} Historian Mark Sullivan later claimed that, with the auspicious debut of "Alexander's Ragtime Band", Berlin abruptly "lifted ragtime from the depths of sordid dives to the apotheosis of fashionable vogue."{{sfn|Golden|2007|p=54}}

Although not a traditional ragtime song,{{sfnm|Furia|1992|1p=49|Corliss|2001}} Berlin's jaunty composition kickstarted a ragtime jubilee—a belated popular celebration of the musical style which African-American composers such as Scott Joplin had originated a decade earlier in the 1890s.{{efn|name=Ragtime|In a 1913 interview published in the black newspaper New York Age, Scott Joplin asserted that there had been "ragtime music in America ever since the Negro race has been here, but the white people took no notice of it until about twenty years ago [in the 1890s]."{{sfn|Joplin interview|1913}}}} The positive international reception of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in 1911 led to a musical and dance revival known as "the ragtime craze".{{sfnm|Golden|2007|1p=56|Furia|1992|2p=49}}

File:Vernon and Irene Castle2 crop.jpg, {{circa|1912|lk=yes}}]]

At the time, ragtime music caught "its second wind" and ragtime dancing spread "like wildfire."{{sfn|Golden|2007|p=51}} One dancing couple in particular who exemplified this faddish sensation were Vernon and Irene Castle.{{sfnm|Golden|2007|1p=51|Furia|1992|2p=49}} The charismatic, trendsetting duo frequently danced to Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and his other modernist compositions.{{sfn|Furia|1992|p=49}} The Castles' modern dancing paired with Berlin's modern songs came to embody the ongoing culture clash between the waning propriety of the Edwardian era and the waxing joviality of the Ragtime revolution on the eve of World War I.{{sfnm|Golden|2007|1pp=51-54|Furia|1992|2p=50|Jablonski|2012|3p=31}} The Daily Express wrote in 1913 that:

{{Quote|In every London restaurant, park and theater, you hear [Berlin's] strains; Paris dances to it; Vienna has forsaken the waltz; Madrid has flung away her castanets, and Venice has forgotten her barcarolles. Ragtime has swept like a whirlwind over the earth.{{sfn|Golden|2007|p=56}}}}

Writers such as Edward Jablonski and Ian Whitcomb have emphasized the irony that, in the 1910s, even the upper class of the Russian Empire—a reactionary nation from which Berlin's Jewish forebears had been compelled to flee decades earlier{{sfn|Whitcomb|1988|pp=183-184}}—became enamored with "the ragtime beat with an abandon bordering on mania."{{sfnm|Whitcomb|1988|1pp=183-184|Jablonski|2012|2p=35}} Specifically, British socialite Lady Diana Cooper described Prince Felix Yusupov, an affluent Russian aristocrat who married the niece of Tsar Nicholas II and later murdered Grigori Rasputin, as dancing "around the ballroom like a demented worm" and shouting, "More ragtime!"{{sfn|Whitcomb|1988|pp=183-184}}

Hearing of such behavior, commentators diagnosed such individuals as "bitten by the ragtime bug" and behaving like "a dog with rabies."{{sfn|Golden|2007|pp=52-53}} They declared that "whether [the ragtime mania] is simply a passing phase of our decadent culture or an infectious disease which has come to stay, like la grippe or leprosy, time alone can show."{{sfn|Golden|2007|p=52}}

{{further|Alexander's Ragtime Band (film)}}

File:Irving Berlin - Ragtime.JPG with actors Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, and Don Ameche on the set of Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938).]]

As the years passed, Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" had many recurrent manifestations as many artists covered it: Billy Murray, in 1912;{{sfn|Hamm|2012|p=43}} Bessie Smith, in 1927;{{sfn|Corliss|2001}} Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, in 1930;{{sfn|Lantz|2004}} the Boswell Sisters, in 1934;{{sfn|Boswell Sisters|1934}} Louis Armstrong, in 1937;{{sfn|Corliss|2001}} Bing Crosby and Connee Boswell, in 1938;{{sfn|Corliss|2001}} Johnny Mercer, in 1945;{{sfn|Corliss|2001}} Al Jolson, in 1947;{{sfn|Corliss|2001}} Nellie Lutcher, in 1948, and Ray Charles in 1959.{{sfn|Corliss|2001}} Consequently, "Alexander's Ragtime Band" had a dozen hit covers within the half-a-century prior to 1960.{{sfn|Corliss|2001}}

Reflecting decades later upon the song's unlikely success, Berlin confessed his amazement at its immediate global acclaim and continued popularity.{{sfn|Bergreen|1990|p=69}} He ascribed its unexpected success to the farcical and silly lyrics which were "fundamentally right" and "started the heels and shoulders of all America and a good section of Europe to rocking."{{sfn|Bergreen|1990|p=69}}

In 1937, 20th Century Fox approached Irving Berlin to write a story treatment for an upcoming film tentatively titled Alexander's Ragtime Band.{{sfnm|Nugent|1938|1p=7|Dieckhaus|1946}} Berlin agreed to write a story outline for the film which featured twenty-six of Berlin's well-known musical scores.{{sfnm|The New York Times|1938|1p=126|Nugent|1938|2p=7|Dieckhaus|1946}}

{{Listen|type=music|filename=Bessie Smith - Alexander's Ragtime Band 1927 - Sample.ogg|title="Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1927)|description=A 29-second sample of Bessie Smith's 1927 cover of the song.|pos=right|format=Ogg}}{{Listen|type=music|filename=The Boswell Sisters - Alexander's Ragtime Band 1934 - Sample.ogg|title="Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1934)|description=An unrestored sample of The Boswell Sisters's 1934 cover of the song.|pos=right|format=Ogg}}

During press interviews promoting the film prior to its premiere, Berlin decried articles by the American press which painted ragtime as jazz's forerunner.{{sfn|The New York Times|1938|p=126}} Berlin stated: "Ragtime really shouldn't be called 'the forerunner of jazz' or 'the father of jazz' because, as everyone will tell when they hear some of the old rags, ragtime and jazz are the same."{{sfn|The New York Times|1938|p=126}}

Released on August 5, 1938, Alexander's Ragtime Band starring Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, and Don Ameche became a smash hit and grossed in excess of five million dollars.{{sfnm|Nugent|1938|1p=7|The New York Times|1944|2p=37|The New York Times|1938|3p=126}} Soon after the film's release, writer Marie Cooper Dieckhaus filed a plagiarism lawsuit.{{sfn|The New York Times|1944|p=37}} After Dieckhaus presented evidence at the trial, a federal judge ruled in Dieckhaus' favor that Berlin had stolen the plot of her unpublished 1937 manuscript and used many of its elements for the film.{{sfnm|The New York Times|1944|1p=37|Dieckhaus|1946}} Dieckhaus had submitted the unpublished manuscript in 1937 to various Hollywood studios, literary agents, and other individuals for their perusal.{{sfn|The New York Times|1944|p=37}} The judge believed that, after rejecting her manuscript, Berlin nonetheless appropriated much of her work.{{sfn|The New York Times|1944|p=37}} In 1946, an appellate court reversed the ruling on appeal.{{sfn|Dieckhaus|1946}}

File:Scott Joplin 19072.jpg alleged that Irving Berlin, an acquaintance, plagiarized the melody.]]

There are allegations that Berlin purloined the melody for "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (in particular, the four notes of "oh, ma honey") from drafts of "Mayflower Rag" and "A Real Slow Drag" by prolific composer Scott Joplin.{{sfnm|1a1=Berlin|1y=2016|1p=253|2a1=Hamm|2y=2012|2pp=43-44|3a1=Ruhling|3a2=Levine|3y=2017}} Berlin and Joplin were acquaintances in New York, and Berlin had opportunities to hear Joplin's scores prior to publication.{{sfn|Hamm|2012|p=44}} At the time, "one of Berlin's functions at the Ted Snyder Music Company was to be on the lookout for publishable music by other composers."{{sfn|Hamm|2012|p=44}}

Allegedly, Berlin "heard Joplin's music in one of the offices, played by a staff musician (since Berlin could not read music) or by Joplin himself."{{sfn|Hamm|2012|p=44}} According to one account:

{{Quote|Joplin took some music to Irving Berlin, and Berlin kept it for some time. Joplin went back and Berlin said he couldn't use [the song]. When "Alexander's Ragtime Band" came out, Joplin said, "That's my tune."{{sfn|Hamm|2012|p=43}}}}

Joplin's widow claimed that, "after Scott had finished writing Treemonisha, and while he was showing it around, hoping to get it published, [Berlin] stole the theme, and made it into a popular song. The number was quite a hit, too, but that didn't do Scott any good."{{sfn|Hamm|2012|p=43}} A relative of John Stillwell Stark, Joplin's music publisher, asserted "the publication of 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' brought Joplin to tears because it was his [own] composition."{{sfn|Hamm|2012|p=43}} Joplin later died bankrupt after undertaking the financial burden of his unsuccessful Treemonisha opera and was buried in a pauper's grave (remaining unmarked for 57 years) in Queens, New York, on April 1, 1917.{{sfn|Ruhling|Levine|2017}} As writer Edward A. Berlin notes in King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era:

{{Quote|There were also rumors heard throughout Tin Pan Alley to the effect that Alexander's Ragtime Band had actually been written by a black man, and even a quarter-century later [composer] W.C. Handy told an audience that "Irving Berlin got all his ideas and most of his music from the late Scott Joplin." Berlin was aware of the rumors and addressed the issue in a magazine interview in 1916.{{sfn|Berlin|2016|p=253}}}}

For the next half-century, Berlin was incensed by the allegation that a "'black boy' {{sic}} had written 'Alexander's Ragtime Band'."{{sfn|Hamm|2012|p=47}} Responding to his detractors, Berlin stated: "If a negro could write 'Alexander,' why couldn't I? ... If they could produce the negro and he had another hit like 'Alexander' in his system, I would choke it out of him and give him twenty thousands dollars in the bargain."{{sfnm|Berlin|2016|1p=254|Hamm|2012|2p=43}} In 1914, Berlin referenced the allegation in the lyrics of his composition "He's A Rag Picker."{{sfn|Hamm|2012|p=47}} The song features a verse in which a "black character" named Mose claims authorship of "Alexander's Ragtime Band."{{sfn|Hamm|2012|p=47}}

{{Listen|type=music|filename=Alexander's Ragtime Band - Billy Murray.ogg|title="Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1912)|description=A 1912 phonograph cylinder by vaudeville singer Billy Murray which includes the oft-omitted second verse.|pos=right|start=0:03|format=Ogg}}

{{Wikisource|has=full lyrics and sheet music|nocat=yes}}

Although the 1911 sheet music cover drawn by artist John Frew depicts the band's musicians as either white or biracial,{{sfn|Hamm|2012|pp=47-48}} Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band"—and his earlier 1910 composition "Alexander and His Clarinet"—employ certain idiomatic expressions ("oh, ma honey", "honey lamb") and vernacular English ("bestest band what am") in the lyrics to indicate to the listener that the characters in the song should be understood to be African-American.{{sfnm|Furia|1992|1p=49|Hamm|2012|2p=47|Herder|1998|3p=6}}

For example, an often-omitted and risqué second verse identifies the race of Alexander's clarinet player:{{sfnm|Kaplan|2020|1p=41|Herder|1998|2p=6}}

{{Quote|

:There's a fiddle with notes that screeches

:Like a chicken—like a chicken—

:And the clarinet is a colored pet.{{sfn|Herder|1998|p=6}}}}

{{clear}}{{Listen|type=music|filename=03 Alexander's Ragtime Band.ogg|title="Alexander's Ragtime Band" (2006)|description=A 2006 cover arranged and performed by Grant Raymond Barrett (with semi-censored lyrics) .|start=0:22|pos=right|format=Ogg}}

Image:Alexander's Ragtime Band 1.jpeg|Page 1

Image:Alexander's Ragtime Band 2.jpeg|Page 2

Image:Alexander's Ragtime Band 3.jpeg|Page 3

Image:Alexander's Ragtime Band 4.jpeg|Page 4

Image:Alexander's Ragtime Band 5.jpeg|Page 5

Bessie Smith and Her Blue Boys recorded Alexander's Ragtime Band on Columbia Records in 1927.

• Ragtime
• Scott Joplin
• List of pre-1920 jazz standards
• When Alexander Takes His Ragtime Band to France
• List of best-selling sheet music

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}

• {{cite web | title = Alexander's Ragtime Band (2011) by Collins and Harlan | website = Library of Congress | location = Washington, D.C. | url = https://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/2259/ | access-date = April 8, 2020 | ref = {{harvid|Library of Congress}}}}
• {{cite book | last = Berlin | first = Edward A. | title = King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era | location = Oxford, United Kingdom | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2016 | orig-year = 1994 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cu3nCwAAQBAJ | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books | isbn = 978-0-19-974032-1 }}
• {{cite book | last = Bergreen | first = Laurence | author-link = Laurence Bergreen | title = As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin | url = https://archive.org/details/asthousandscheer00berg | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive | location = New York | publisher = Viking Press | year = 1990 | isbn = 978-0-7867-5252-2 }}
• {{cite magazine | last = Corliss | first = Richard | author-link = Richard Corliss | title = That Old Christmas Feeling: Irving America | url = http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,189846,00.html | location = New York | magazine = Time | date = December 24, 2001 | access-date = April 3, 2020 }}
• {{cite book | last = Freedland | first = Michael | title = A Salute to Irving Berlin | year = 1988 | page = 65 | location = Singapore | publisher = Landmark Books | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=a04z1-BaYO0C&q=irving+berlin+jack+alexander | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books | isbn = 978-1-55736-084-7 }}
• {{cite book | last = Fuld | first = James J. | title = The Book of World-famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk | year = 2000 | page = 91 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EVninY59ul0C&q=irving+berlin+jack+alexander&pg=PA91 | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books | edition = Fifth | location = New York | publisher = Dover Publications | isbn = 0-486-41475-2 }}
• {{cite book | last1 = Furia | first1 = Philip | author1-link = Philip Furia | last2 = Patterson | first2 = Laurie J. | author2-link = Laurie J. Patterson | title = The American Song Book: The Tin Pan Alley Era | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JYzpCgAAQBAJ | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books | location = Oxford, United Kingdom | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2016 | isbn = 978-0-19-939188-2 }}
• {{cite book | last = Furia | first = Philip | author-link = Philip Furia | title = The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America's Great Lyricists | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZNsc1AnOnSkC | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books | location = Oxford, United Kingdom | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1992 | isbn = 978-0-19-802288-6 }}
• {{cite book | last = Giddins | first = Gary | author-link = Gary Giddins | title = Visions of Jazz: The First Century | year = 1998 | location = Oxford, United Kingdom | publisher = Oxford University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MH0btmTBccsC | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books | isbn = 978-0-19-513241-0 }}
• {{cite book | last = Golden | first = Eve | author-link = Eve Golden | title = Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution | url = https://archive.org/details/vernonirenecastl00gold_0 | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive | isbn = 978-0-8131-2459-9 | location = Lexington, Kentucky | publisher = University Press of Kentucky | year = 2007 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/vernonirenecastl00gold_0/page/n54 41], 54, 56 }}
• {{cite book | last = Hamm | first = Charles | author-link = Charles Hamm | chapter = Excerpt from Alexander and His Band | pages = 38–52 | editor-last = Sears | editor-first = Benjamin | title = The Irving Berlin Reader | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DqZFJQZiiXIC | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books | series = Readers on American Musicians | location = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press (USA) | isbn = 978-0-19-538374-4 | date = April 19, 2012 }}
• {{cite book | editor-last = Herder | editor-first = Ronald | title = 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics | chapter = Alexander's Ragtime Band | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=A8_CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 | via = Google Books | location = Mineola, New York | publisher = Dover Publications | year = 1998 | isbn = 0-486-29725-X }}
• {{cite book | last = Jablonski | first = Edward | author-link = Edward Jablonski | chapter = 'Alexander' and Irving | pages = 29–38 | editor-last = Sears | editor-first = Benjamin | title = The Irving Berlin Reader | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DqZFJQZiiXIC | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books | series = Readers on American Musicians | location = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press (USA) | isbn = 978-0-19-538374-4 | date = April 19, 2012 }}
• {{cite book | last = Kaplan | first = James | author-link = James Kaplan | title = Irving Berlin: New York Genius | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=42-1DwAAQBAJ | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books | pages = 40–41 | date = January 3, 2020 | location = New Haven, Connecticut | publisher = Yale University Press | isbn = 978-0-300-18048-0 }}
• {{cite web | last = Lantz | first = Walter | author-link = Walter Lantz | url = http://lantz.goldenagecartoons.com/1930.html | title = The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia: 1930 | year = 2004 | access-date = April 24, 2011 | publisher = The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110514224259/http://lantz.goldenagecartoons.com/1930.html | archive-date = May 14, 2011 | url-status = dead | df = mdy-all }}
• {{cite news | last = Nugent | first = Frank S. | author-link = Frank Nugent | title = The Roxy Plays Host to 'Alexander's Ragtime Band,' a Twentieth Century Tribute to Irving Berlin | date = August 6, 1938 | access-date = April 8, 2020 | work = The New York Times | location = New York | url-access = subscription | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1938/08/06/archives/the-screen-the-roxy-plays-host-to-alexanders-ragtime-band-a.html | pages = 7 }}
• {{cite news | author = | title = Plagiarism Suit Upheld: Federal Court Rules on the Film 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' | date = March 5, 1944 | page = 37 | work = The New York Times | location = New York | url-access = subscription | access-date = April 8, 2020 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1944/03/05/archives/plagiarism-suit-upheld-federal-court-rules-on-the-film-alexanders.html | ref = {{harvid|The New York Times|1944|p=37}}}}
• {{cite news | last1 = Ruhling | first1 = Nancy A. | last2 = Levine | first2 = Alexandra S. | title = Remembering Scott Joplin | date = May 23, 2017 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/nyregion/new-york-today-scott-joplin-100-year-anniversary-flag-drive.html | work = The New York Times | location = New York | url-access = subscription | access-date = April 8, 2020 }}
• {{cite book | last = Ruhlmann | first = William | title = Breaking Records: 100 Years of Hits | chapter = The 1910s | pages = 23–24 | location = New York & London | publisher = Taylor & Francis Books | isbn = 0-415-94305-1 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=I1aSAgAAQBAJ | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books | year = 2005 | orig-year = 2004 }}
• {{cite book | last = Streissguth | first = Tom | title = Say It with Music: A Story about Irving Berlin | year = 2011 | page = 30 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YR-0x88wTMwC&q=irving+berlin+jack+alexander&pg=PA30 | url-access = subscription | via = Google Books | location = Minneapolis, Minnesota | publisher = Millbrook Press | isbn = 978-0-87614-810-5 }}
• {{cite news | author = | title = That Ragtime Jubilee | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1938/07/31/archives/that-ragtime-jubilee.html | date = July 31, 1938 | page = 126 | access-date = April 8, 2020 | url-access = subscription | work = The New York Times | location = New York | ref={{harvid|The New York Times|1938}}}}
• {{cite news | author = | title = Theatrical Comment: Use of Vulgar Words a Detriment to Ragtime | work = New York Age | location = New York | date = April 3, 1913 | page = 6 | ref={{harvid|Joplin interview|1913}}}}
• {{cite AV media | people = The Boswell Sisters | date = May 23, 1934 | title = Alexander's Ragtime Band by the Boswell Sisters | language = en | url= https://archive.org/details/78_alexanders-ragtime-band_the-boswell-sisters-irving-berlin_gbia0065060b | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive | access-date= April 8, 2020 | type = 78-rpm record | publisher = Brunswick Records | location = New York | ref = {{harvid|Boswell Sisters|1934}}}}
• {{cite web | title = Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. v. Dieckhaus | url = https://casetext.com/case/twentieth-century-fox-film-corp-v-dieckhaus | date = March 25, 1946 | access-date = April 8, 2020 | publisher = United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit | location = St. Louis, Missouri | via = CaseText.com | ref = {{harvid|Dieckhaus|1946}}}}
• {{cite book | last = Whitcomb | first = Ian | author-link = Ian Whitcomb | title = Irving Berlin and Ragtime America | publisher = Limelight Editions | location = New York | url = https://archive.org/details/irvingberlinragt0000whit | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive | year = 1988 | orig-year = 1987 | isbn = 978-0-7126-1664-5 }}

{{refend}}

{{Commons category|Alexander's Ragtime Band}}

• [http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/AlexandersRagtimeBandCentennial.htm "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (Centennial Tribute)]
• [https://repository.duke.edu/dc/hasm/a5378 "Alexander's Ragtime Band" Sheet Music (David M. Rubenstein Manuscript Library)]
• [http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?query=alexander%27s%20ragtime%20band%2010522&num=1 "Alexander's Ragtime Band" by Billy Murray] (Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project)

{{Irving Berlin songs}}

{{Al Jolson}}

{{Billy Murray|state=autocollapse}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Rags by Irving Berlin

Category:1911 songs

Category:1910s jazz standards

Category:Songs written by Irving Berlin

Category:Songs about jazz

Category:Songs about musicians

Category:Billy Murray (singer) songs

Category:Bessie Smith songs

Category:Louis Armstrong songs

Category:Belle Baker songs

Category:Johnnie Ray songs

Category:Dick and Dee Dee songs

Category:Vaudeville songs

Category:Al Jolson songs