Ted Snyder

Theodore Frank Snyder (15 August 1881 in Freeport, Illinois – 16 July 1965 in Woodland Hills, California), was a U.S. composer, lyricist, and music publisher (see Waterson, Berlin & Snyder, Inc.). His hits include "The Sheik of Araby" (1921) and "Who's Sorry Now?" (1923). In 1970, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. As of 2007^[update], his compositions have been used in more than twenty motion pictures.

Born in Freeport, Illinois, he grew up in Boscobel, Wisconsin. He learned to play the piano as a boy and as a young man returned to Illinois to work in Chicago as a pianist in a café before being employed by a music publishing company.

He moved to New York in 1904 after working in Chicago plugging musical compositions.

In 1907, Snyder had his first musical composition published and the following year set up his own music publishing business in New York City. He gave Irving Berlin his first break in 1909 when he hired him as a staff writer for his company and the two eventually became business partners. In 1914, Ted Snyder became one of the founding members of ASCAP.

Snyder's growing name as a top-line composer led to his compositions being used in stage plays with the first to make it to Broadway in 1908. Following his teaming up with Irving Berlin, the two were hired to perform and sing their music in the 1910 musical Up and Down Broadway. Snyder would become widely known to a later generation through hits such as 1921's "The Sheik of Araby" recorded by several artists including Duke Ellington (in 1932), Benny Goodman (in 1937), and The Beatles (in 1962, Decca Audition).

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