The
Entertainer is a
ragtime song by
Scott Joplin. Scott is also well known for the
Maple Leaf Rag and
myriad other ragtime favorites. An
online search will turn up
umpteen MIDI files of his work.
This particular song was made famous by its inclusion in the movie The Sting, and is kept famous by use a ditty by nearly every piano player in existence who wants to show off or test out a piano. It is a more professional version of Chopsticks, in a sense.
Anyway, the song is almost always instrumental. The only exception I have ever seen is when Milton Berle gently crooned the lyrics on The Muppet Show in 1977. Unfortunatly, I cannot find these lyrics anywhere. I recall it being much more tender and sad than the music normal makes you feel. If anyone knows these lyrics, I'd love to know them.
Finally, one of the strangest arrangements of The Entertainer I ever heard was on my Commodore 64, way back in 1985. The program would take over three minutes to load the arrays needed to store the arrangment for the c64's four-voice synthesizer. When it finally took off, though, it was a very impressive arrangement.