12th Street Rag – Fiddle Tune a Day – Day 119

 “Twelfth Street Rag” was composed by Euday L. Bowman in 1914. It is one of the most famous and best-selling rags of the ragtime era. It has been recorded by many artists, ranging from Louis Armstrong to Lester Young. Bowman worked as a pianist in some of the bordellos of Kansas City. The “Twelfth Street Rag” — was named after streets of “Boss” Tom Pendergast’s redlight district inKansas City, Missouri.

The recording by Pee Wee Hunt was the Billboard number-one single for 1948, selling over three million copies. It was released as Capitol Records 15015 in May 1948.

Euday Bowman, the composer, recorded and published his own recording of the song, on Bowman 11748.

Donald Peers recorded the song in London on March 26, 1949. It was released by EMI on the His Master’s Voice label as catalogue number B 9763.

Its structure is: Intro A A1 Intro-2 A2

It has been best known as the theme to The Joe Franklin Show; the version most associated with the program was Big Tiny Little’s 1959 recording from his album Honky Tonk Piano (Brunswick BL (7)54049).

In the 1919 short “A Day’s Pleasure” by Charlie Chaplin, the African-American band is heard^{[dubious – discuss]} playing a version of the popular rag while on the ship.

More recently, a ukulele version has been featured as background music on the TV series SpongeBob SquarePants.