It was the first pop song ever, and even as the fad for which it was named had already mostly played itself out, Irving Berlin was smart enough to just name it “Ragtime Band.” In musical style there was precious little ragtime in it. What it did have was just the right amount of a catchy melody and lyrics to make it appealing to the World’s Greatest Entertainer, the singer Al Jolson, who began performing it in New York.

On this day, March 18, in 1911, Irving Berlin copyrighted what could easily be called the biggest song of the 20th century, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

Amazingly, for a man who wrote so many of the songs considered classics today, Irving Berlin was music illiterate. He could not read or write any music — his every composition was put together by “musical secretaries”, who duly noted in formal language who Berlin presumably hummed or sang. This was probably the origin of the rumors the Berlin used ghostwriters, but it is well agreed that every song was his.