The forgotten artist who created the first instrumental song to sell over a million copies
Society loves an instrumental. Whilst genres such as post-rock might have taken the formula and run off into the sunset with it thanks to eminent groups such as Sigur Rós and Mogwai, the instrumental is a form that has been alive since the emergence of music itself.
One of the most culturally important instrumental songs has to be 1967’s ‘Beck’s Bolero’. Starring the duel guitars of Jeff Beck and Yardbirds bandmate Jimmy Page, the recording also features other era stars such as John Paul Jones, Keith Moon, and Nicky Hopkins. Unsurprisingly, the track was a tremendous success and helped usher rock music into a more expansive environment than ever before.
Other notable instrumentals include the likes of The Tornados’ ‘Telstar’, Link Wray’s ‘Rumble’ and Dick Dale’s ‘Misirlou’. Interestingly, though, whilst the aforementioned compositions remain iconic, the first instrumental to sell over a million copies came decades before and from a forgotten master of music.
The artist in question is Scott Joplin, the man noted as America’s first pop star at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, whose life, like many of that time, took a tragic turn. Whilst many modern listeners might not know his name, in a testament to the gravity of his work, his classic song ‘The Entertainer’ is such a ubiquitous staple of life that off the back of just hearing two notes alone, the rest of the Western world would be able to sing the rest of the track. It is everywhere, from silent movies to the call of the ice cream van and even old mobile ringtones.
A true visionary, it is one of the great tragedies that a man who had such an impact on culture, particularly on the worlds of jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, has been able to fade into the annals of history without even a second thought. Remarkably, this arc happened during his lifetime. It saw Joplin go from being the preeminent ‘King of Ragtime’ – the syncopated American musical phenomenon lasting from the 1880s to the 1910s – to dying penniless in a psychiatric hospital and being buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave.
In 1899, Joplin released one of his best-loved compositions, ‘Maple Leaf Rag’. According to most historians, it was the first-ever instrumental to sell over a million copies, a benchmark hit within the composer’s lifetime, too, showing just how hard his coming fall from grace was. The birth of pop music as we know it, it is strange that the song is not more prominent given its significance.
Listen to ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ below.
