Ralph Rainger won a scholarship to a prestigious music school but at the behest of his parents left after a year to work his way through law school, playing piano and accompanying vaudeville shows at night. His heart wasn’t in his law practice so he left in 1928 to co-lead a Broadway pit orchestra. In 1929, while working on the revue The Little Show, he was called upon to write an additional song for the star, Libby Holman, and came up with “Moanin’ Low” for the Howard Dietz lyric. In 1930 he wrote another show hit with Leo Robin, beginning a prolific partnership that would last until his untimely death in a plane crash.

The songwriting pair took off for Hollywood and wrote for over 100 films between 1930 and 1942, including Blonde Ven...