Biography
Ralph Rainger launched his career crafting material for Tin Pan Alley and the Broadway stage before emerging as one of Hollywood’s most active composers, above all in the 1930s, and is chiefly remembered for his long partnership with lyricist Leo Robin.
Born in New York City in 1901, Rainger mastered music composition and theory on his own while still attending high school. A scholarship to a conservatory was set aside after only one year so he could honor his father’s wish that he study law. While practicing as an attorney, he continued to play piano nightly in a dance orchestra until he returned to music on a full-time basis in 1926. He formed a songwriting duo with Edgar Fairchild for several Broadway productions and, with Fairchild, co-directed the orchestra for the 1928 musical Cross My Heart. In 1929 he appeared in another piano duo, this time with Adam Carroll, in the revue The Little Show, which introduced his first hit, “Moanin’ Low.” Rainger next worked as accompanist and arranger for assorted vaudeville acts and singers before relocating to Hollywood in 1932 with his lyric-writing partner Leo Robin. By then the pair had already placed such successes as “Louise” and “I Have to Have You” in 1929 and Fanny Brice’s torch song “When a Woman Loves a Man” in 1930.
Rainger and Robin remained under contract at Paramount Pictures from 1932 until 1938, becoming the decade’s leading film songwriting team and continuing that prominence into the early 1940s with more than fifty chart entries. Among Rainger’s best-known melodies are “Please” (1932), “Love in Bloom” (1934), “With Every Breath I Take” and “If I Should Lose You” (both 1935), “Blue Hawaii” (1937), and “Thanks for the Memory” (1938). Outside his primary collaboration with Robin, he also wrote with Howard Dietz, Sam Coslow, and Dorothy Parker. He was later inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. Rainger maintained his creative alliance with Leo Robin until his death in a plane crash on October 23, 1942, just outside Palm Springs, California.
Born in New York City in 1901, Rainger mastered music composition and theory on his own while still attending high school. A scholarship to a conservatory was set aside after only one year so he could honor his father’s wish that he study law. While practicing as an attorney, he continued to play piano nightly in a dance orchestra until he returned to music on a full-time basis in 1926. He formed a songwriting duo with Edgar Fairchild for several Broadway productions and, with Fairchild, co-directed the orchestra for the 1928 musical Cross My Heart. In 1929 he appeared in another piano duo, this time with Adam Carroll, in the revue The Little Show, which introduced his first hit, “Moanin’ Low.” Rainger next worked as accompanist and arranger for assorted vaudeville acts and singers before relocating to Hollywood in 1932 with his lyric-writing partner Leo Robin. By then the pair had already placed such successes as “Louise” and “I Have to Have You” in 1929 and Fanny Brice’s torch song “When a Woman Loves a Man” in 1930.
Rainger and Robin remained under contract at Paramount Pictures from 1932 until 1938, becoming the decade’s leading film songwriting team and continuing that prominence into the early 1940s with more than fifty chart entries. Among Rainger’s best-known melodies are “Please” (1932), “Love in Bloom” (1934), “With Every Breath I Take” and “If I Should Lose You” (both 1935), “Blue Hawaii” (1937), and “Thanks for the Memory” (1938). Outside his primary collaboration with Robin, he also wrote with Howard Dietz, Sam Coslow, and Dorothy Parker. He was later inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. Rainger maintained his creative alliance with Leo Robin until his death in a plane crash on October 23, 1942, just outside Palm Springs, California.