BENNIE MOTEN'S KANSAS CITY ORCH. - TWELFTH STREET RAG - ROARING 20's VICTROLA 8-30

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When you read its history, it only makes sense that Moten's orchestra recorded it! A friend of Euday Bowman known as "Raggedy Ed" declared his intention to open a pawn shop on 12th Street in Kansas City while the two were walking along it in 1911. Bowman is rumored to have said "If you get rich on those three balls, I'll write a piece on three notes to make myself rich."

It was more than 15 years after Bowman composed the song before he actually wrote the music down in manuscript form. He returned to Texas briefly and tried to sell the piece to a company in Dallas; but he only had an offer of ten dollars for it and was told it really was not worth publishing. Returning to Kansas City, he sold it to Jenkins Music Company in 1913. The Jenkins company felt Bowman's arrangement was far too difficult however, hiring C. E. Wheeler to simplify it. With a big advertising push "12th Street Rag" began to sell better. In 1919, James S. Sumner added lyrics. The song was popular with early Kansas City bands and became a hit after Bennie Moten recorded it for Victor in 1927, the same year Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven recorded it.