Maple Leaf Rag about the sales of the "Maple Leaf Rag", for example that 1 million copies of the sheet music were sold in the composer's lifetime, making Scott Joplin the first musician to sell 1 million copies of a piece of instrumental music. Joplin's first biographer Rudi Blesh wrote that during its first six months the piece sold 75,000 copies, and became "the first great instrumental sheet music hit in America". However, research by Joplin's later biographer Edward A. Berlin demonstrated that this was not the case; the initial print-run of 400 took one year to sell, and under the terms of
The Maple Leaf Forever We'll not break faith with glories past The torch we'll lower never A shining light to all the world The Maple Leaf forever. From Arctic land to Great Lakes strand Baie d’Espoir to Nootka Sound May patriot love unite us and True commonwealth be found; And may Canadians new and old Uphold the great endeavour And proudly wave from sea to sea The Maple Leaf forever. The Maple Leaf, our emblem dear The Maple Leaf forever And proudly wave from sea to sea The Maple Leaf forever. During the final game of the Toronto Maple Leafs at their former home