BEST OF THE BAND

Music / Songs / Rag Mama Rag

Rag Mama Rag

A ragtime-flavored romp that stands apart from the more solemn material on The Band, built on a rolling, honky-tonk piano part and a shuffling, almost Dixieland rhythm. The instrumentation itself became something of a running joke within the group: to get the sound they wanted, several members swapped their usual instruments, with Levon Helm moving to mandolin and Rick Danko picking up fiddle, while Garth Hudson's piano and horns carry most of the song's forward motion.

Robertson wrote it, and lead vocal duties get passed around the group rather than settled on one singer, in keeping with the song's loose, good-time character. It was the record's second single, and while it never became one of the group's best-remembered songs domestically, it performed better in the UK than almost anything else the Band ever released, reaching No. 16 there against a modest No. 57 showing on the US chart.

Chart performance

Peaked at No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 16 in the UK, the group's best-ever UK chart placement.

Notable versions