Ted Koehler, lyricist, composer, and pianist, was a prolific writer whose poetic talent fashioned several enduring standards, including "Get Happy" (1930), "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" (1931), and "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" (1932). His best-known song, "Stormy Weather" (1933), is still a mainstay of club performances and recordings.

Ted Louis Koehler was born in Washington, D.C., on 14 July 1894 but grew up in New York and Newark, New Jersey. The son of George Koehler, a photoengraver, and Ethel Goldsboro, Koehler attended public schools but dropped out at age fourteen to begin working full-time in his father's photoengraving shop in Manhattan. Koehler's father was an accomplished pianist, and when young Ted demonstrated an interest in music, he was given piano lessons. Before long he was drawn to bars and clubs in Newark, where his nightly piano playing, with his hot, barrelhouse style, became popular. These late-night gigs...