He also owned a restaurant and bar in New York City and in Washington, D.C. Luckey Roberts noted compositions include "Junk Man Rag", "Moonlight Cocktail",[3] "Pork and Beans" (1913),[4] and "Railroad Blues".

[5] Luckey Roberts was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States,[2] and was playing piano and acting professionally with traveling Vaudeville and Negro minstrel shows in his childhood.

For about a 10-year period, Roberts toured Europe three times in addition to many USA performances which showcased his childhood talents of singing, dancing, tumbling, and juggling.

During this time he and pianist Eubie Blake, a lifelong friend, at Joe Gans's saloon, collaborated on ideas for piano composition.

He became one of the leading pianists in Harlem and started publishing some of his original rags, assisted by Artie Matthews although he regularly won cutting contests he was still learning how to annotate music:[2] On December 28, 1911, he married his lifelong partner Lena Sanford Roberts, a musical comedy actress, who he met while they were traveling with J. Leubrie Hill in the My Friend from Dixie company.

[6] In 1913, "The Junk Man Rag," a one-step, with lyrics Chris Smith and Ferd Mierisch, for Turkey Trot Opera written by Will Marion Cook.

[15] "The Junk Man Rag" was subsequently published both as an instrumental (piano) solo and as a song (with lyrics by Chris Smith (composer) (1879–1949) and Ferd E. Mierisch (fl.

W. Stern & Co., 102-104 W. 38th St., N.Y., 1913[16] Roberts sheet music was often annotated as being 'simplified' since the complex ornamentation and decoration that he and the other ragtime performers embellished into their pieces were not easily scored or played by others.

Fortunately, there are existing recordings and piano rolls of Roberts and contemporaries performing "The Junk Man Rag": A complete analysis of Roberts work would therefore necessarily entail an in-depth analysis of the published scores, a study of any existing piano rolls (which don't always capture the dynamics) and recordings (which at the time had difficulty capturing rapid embellishments), as well as a consideration of interviews and contemporary commentary which give insight into the performance improvisation and reading the room whether for stage performance, a cutting competition, or private dance entertainment.

Roberts next big hit was "Pork and Beans", annotated as a One-Step or Two-Step and recognized as a Fox Trot, and an early example of Stride (music) style.

[7] Alex Rogers and Roberts wrote all the material for the radio comedy show Two Black Crows, featuring Moran and Mack, broadcast every Sunday night at 9 p.m. over station WABC for several months.

[7][9] A few recordings are available online as audio files at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Library: Among the hit singles with music by Roberts and lyrics by Rogers were: The Library of Congress National Jukebox archive and the University of California San Diego's Discography of American Historical Recordings Collection include a number of routines written by Rogers and Roberts.

[30] Roberts created and performed "Midnight Frolic Glide", the finale of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.'s two-season (1916–1917) Follies, that clicked on the New Amsterdam Roof.

[6] Although Society was hit hard by the Great Depression, Roberts, admired for his generosity, was resilient and reported to have anonymously given away Christmas baskets during the hardest years.

[75] [80] More than 100 guests was a dinner-dance enjoyed Roberts playing in the dining salon and then on the top deck of the floating hotel, Amphitrite, at a party given by Mrs. James Deering in honor of Princess Rospigliosi.

[81] In addition to playing the piano and leading his band, Roberts would sometimes dance for guests, with mentions of such at parties of Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt 2d particularly noted in newspapers.

Among his students were Mr. and Mrs. Joshua S. Cosden, Mrs. Louis G. Kaufman, Mrs. William K. Dick (Madeleine Force, the former widow Mrs. John Jacob Astor), Mrs. Theodore Frelinghuysen, Mr. and Mrs. Edward F. Hutton, Countess Salm, Mr. and Mrs. J. J. O'Brien, Florenz Ziegfeld, Billie Burke, wife of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., Harold Vanderbilt, Mrs. A. J. Drexel Jr. and Major and Mrs. Barclay Warburton, Mrs. Frederick Frelinghuysen, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Breese, Mrs. Ernest Gagne, Rodman Wanamaker, Paris Singer, Mrs. Edward Shearson, Mrs. Gurne Munn, and Marilyn Miller.

Grace Robinson, of the New York Times wrote: If the dulcet strains of "Magnolia," which afford the very best Charlestoning, float out of exclusive $40,000-a-year Fifth ave. apartments as you rattle by in a bus, you may know that Lucky Roberts and Paul Bass are still earning gin and baby shoes.

Thirty years after composing the syncopated tune "Ripple of the Nile" (1912), which proved too difficult for most players of the day and was not copyrighted or published, Roberts drastically slowed the tempo around 1940 to teach it to a student.

Realizing that it sounded good as a ballad, he collaborated with Kim Gannon to add lyrics and published it under a new title, "Moonlight Cocktail".

[3][6][9] Glenn Miller and his orchestra performed the number first on New York's station WABC, and it rapidly became among top ten on Hit Parade.

"Moonlight Cocktail" was the number one American song hit of World War II and sold over one million recordings by Bing Crosby and Glenn Miller.

[7][6] On 18 January and 8 February 1946, Roberts performed as pianist with an all-star traditional jazz group for the first two shows in the radio series This Is Jazz; and the following he recorded "Railroad Blues" and his five durable compositions: "Ripples of the Nile," "Pork and Beans," "Shy and Sly," "Music Box Rag," and "Junk Man Rag" for Blesh's Circle label.

He reportedly owned a bar in New York City and a restaurant in Washington, D. C. He was very generous throughout his life, and had paid for a medical library at Harlem Hospital.