Marvin Hamlisch

Chances are good that if you mention The Sting to someone in their fifties or sixties, the first thing they'll do is bring up Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer."

If you haven't already watched The Sting, you'll probably wonder why Grandpa is humming the ice cream truck jingle…but if you have, you'll probably join him. Because about 90% of The Sting's soundtrack is Joplin rags.

A little crash course on the music of Scott Joplin:

Joplin was a Black composer working at the turn of the 20th century, and he's considered the best of the best when it came to writing "ragtime music." This was a genre that was super-popular in Black communities for years before gaining popularity with—well, with pretty much everyone who heard it. The music is jangly and peppy, and was all the rage until a little thing called jazz swooped in in 1917. (For more on this period of history, check out E.L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime.)

When it came to making a soundtrack for The Sting, Marvin Hamlisch was called in to adapt some of Joplin's music for the silver screen. And the soundtrack was a smash hit—it topped the Billboard charts for five weeks in 1974. (Source)

You heard that right: a movie soundtrack featuring seventy-year-old music beat out contemporary albums like David Bowie's Diamond Dogs.

We're going to hand the mic to Marvin Hamlisch, who sounds just about as shocked as you probably are:

The music for The Sting was getting a lot of mention in the reviews. (Who would have guessed that a ragtime single would bounce to the top of the charts?) Of course, there were critics. Some carped that Scott Joplin's music was out of place in a movie set in another era. The film was set in the thirties; the Joplin "rags" were written around the turn of the century. I had been aware of this. I knew this might cause a problem for some purists. But the music and movie had a great kinship—a good humor and high spirits. It received many nominations and won many Oscars. (Source)

Yep; Hamlisch got to take home a little golden statuette for his work adapting Joplin's rags. We just hope he remembered to thank Scott himself in his acceptance speech.