"Root Beer Rag" is a song from Billy Joel's 1974 album Streetlife Serenade. An instrumental track in a very fast ragtime style, it was later released as the B-side of the "Honesty" single, and a live version was included with the DVD that was part of the 30th anniversary re-release of The Stranger.
The German a cappella group Wise Guys recorded a notable cover version of the song. The original version by Joel was also used as the theme music to a 1980s sports program in New Zealand broadcast by TV One. It was also used in the 1980s on Radio Bayern 3 in Germany for the Saturday and Sunday late morning show called Musikbox. The song is in C major and makes up one of three studio instrumentals that he has released.
"Root Beer Rag" was also the name of a Billy Joel newsletter (now defunct) published in the late 1970s to early 1980s.
In response to an audience question about the song's origin during one of Joel's musical lectures, Joel gave the following explanation:
I got my first Moog Synthesizer. This was in the mid 70s and I got my first Moog and I put it on every record. I said 'I have to write an instrumental where I can use this Moog Synthesizer. It kinda turned me off the synthesizers forever after. That's why I wrote that song. Just purely out of stupid self-indulgence.
Rich Holly's percussion ensemble arrangement of "Root Beer Rag" is commercially available on the O-Zone Percussion Group's "Whiplash" CD with soloist Jeff Senley.
Read more about Root Beer Rag: Notable Cover Versions
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