Remarkable sound considering the date recorded, What a marvelous tune also! I imagine this rag played in many of the old silent film comedies.. Thank you!

If you like Harry Breuer's "Mallet Magic", this is of the type. Good (and speedy) xylophone playing, but this "oompah-oompah" backup band isn't supporting the soloist quite so well as HB's band did. Not bad though.

This seems to be the recording from the Archeophone Records website, Victor 16678-B. They were uncertain about the date, but confirmed that this is indeed William H. Reitz performing. http://www.archeophone.com/features/recordings/905.php

The notes indicate that the source of this recording is Victor 16678. If that is so, then the artist is not William Reitz, but Chris Chapman (another early recording xylophonist), and the recording was made on July 15, 1908, not in 1922. Chapman, who played a glass xylophone, was accompanied by the Victor Orchestra. Regardless, it is a fine rendition of this 1906 rag, which was one of the few ragtime compositions that entered country music tradition, with recordings by such artists as Dr. Humphrey Bates and His Possum Hunters, the Kessinger Brothers, the Texas Night Hawks (as “Crazy Rag”), the East Texas Serenaders (as “Three-in-One Two Step”), Smith’s Garage Fiddle Band, the Corn Cob Crushers and the Swift Jewel Cowboys.

I plan to give very few 5 stars. This one was close.

A real toe-tapper this song will make you want to get up and dance (resist or your family/work colleges will die laughing at you).

Brilliant tune and a great recording it transports you back to the 1920s. Download this onto your iPod/MP3 player it'll put a smile on your face.

Jaqian