[1] The song was recorded widely for both the phonograph and player piano,[2] and was the third ragtime composition to sell over one million copies of sheet music.

[6][5][a] This recording is somewhat rare (Lakeside/U.S.Everlasting cylinders, though molded celluloid on a wax/fiber core, were made in small batches).

Originally the B-side of another composition, "Cross Hands Boogie", "Black and White Rag" was championed by the popular disc jockey Jack Jackson, and started a craze for Atwell's honky-tonk style of playing.

[9] "Black and White" Rag was also later arranged for use as the music in the 1985 BBC Computer game Repton and some of its sequels.

[10] The piece has also become a fiddle standard since as early as the 1930s, with recordings by musicians such as Johnny Gimble and Benny Thomasson.