Johnson, Charles Leslie 12/03/1876 - 12/28/1950

Charles Leslie Johnson (or "Chas L. Johnson") was an American composer of ragtime and popular music. He was born in Kansas City, Kansas and died in Kansas City, Missouri. In total he published over 300 compositions most of them Ragtimes. Well known are "Doc Brown's Cakewalk", "Dill Pickles", "Apple Jack (Some Rag)", and "Snookums Rag". However, his most successful piece was a sentimental ballad entitled "Sweet and Low" of which over 1 million copies were sold. Some experts believe that if he had lived and worked in New York he would have been one of the greatest ragtime composers. He wrote more than Scott Joplin, James Scott and Joseph Lamb together and was not limited to ragtimes. He also composed waltzes, tangos, cakewalks, marches, novelty songs and other contemporary music.