Beautiful Ohio Blues

This record has the unique distinction of having Billboard #1 hits on both sides!

By 1919, “jazzing up” of slower tunes was well-established device of American arrangers.  Ragtime versions of classical tunes were popular with bands of the day, and here we have a one-step version of the waltz Beautiful Ohio (which held the Billboard #1 spot for 14 weeks that year and is now the state song of Ohio).  Beautiful Ohio was written by Mary Earl, a pseudonym for Robert A. “Bobo” King.  If the arranger of this clever take is not King himself, it is not noted.