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Ted Koehler

American lyricist (1894-1973)

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
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Source updated July 29, 2026

Ted L. Koehler (July 14, 1894, January 17, 1973) was an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.

01Life and career

Koehler was born in Washington, D.C., in 1894.

He started out as a photo-engraver, but was attracted to the music business, where he started out as a theater pianist for silent films.

He moved on to write for vaudeville and Broadway theatre, and he also produced nightclub shows.

His most successful collaboration was with the composer Harold Arlen, with whom he wrote many famous songs from the 1920s through the 1940s. In 1929, the duo composed their first well-known song, "Get Happy", and went on to write "Let's Fall in Love", "Stormy Weather", "Sing My Heart", and other hit songs. Throughout the early and mid-1930s they wrote for the Cotton Club, a popular Harlem night club, for big band jazz legend Duke Ellington and other top performers, as well as for Broadway musicals and Hollywood films.

Koehler also worked with other composers, including Jimmy McHugh, Rube Bloom, Harry Warren, and Sammy Fain.

Koehler died in 1973 in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 78.

02Songs

03Work on Broadway

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Ted Koehler”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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