This was Joplin's first ragtime piano work or at least the first published one. He collaborated with other composers on certain of his compositions in the years to come, including Scott Hayden, with whom he co-wrote Felicity Rag (ca. 1901) and Sunflower Slow Drag (1901). Original Rags, however, appears not to be a genuine collaborative effort, despite the fact that Charles Neil Daniels is credited with being the "arranger" in the printed score. He undoubtedly helped get the work published and may have aided Joplin in other details, but his creative role in original rags was little, if anything. The work opens with a brief, quasi-dramatic introduction, after which the chipper, confident main theme comes gracefully prancing along. It is playful and brimming energy in its upper register rhythmic pattern and almost nervous sense of joy. Many of the composer's later works have a more festive, bigger sound than that found in this colorful, light piece, though even here sonorities grow a bit more muscular in the latter half, but without surrendering their graceful or joyous sense. This approximately four-minute piece is generally counted among the composer's finest piano compositions.

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