What Do You Know About Singer Pha Terrell "Until the real thing comes along"

So what do you know about singer Pha Terrell best known in some circles for "Until The Real Thing Comes along" with the great Andy Kirk band of the 1930s. Also he was a young Billie Holidays boyfriend and had a beautiful voice....can you say obscure? hes definately obscure today
My mother remembered this singer and her remark was No one ever sang that song like Pha and he was a cute cat



Best known as a vocalist for Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy, the unusual first name of this artist would become an item on a Vietnamese restaurant menu if the proper vowel were switched. Pha Terrell, sometimes known to his friends as Elmer, was discovered by Kirk in the early '30s while toiling as a combination of dancer, singer, and semi-hustler at a Kansas City club. Terrell sang with the Kirk band between 1933 and 1941, after which he headed for Indianapolis, at that time a thriving jazz center. He worked there in smoochy Clarence Love's Orchestra, often tying knots in whatever strings of one-nighters were available to this type of territory band. Like just about any standup singer, Terrell eventually decided to go it alone, a career move that in his case he made out on the West Coast. A kidney ailment took him down when he was just getting started.

Available recordings by this singer can basically be evenly split between Kirk collections and various compilations based on themes such as early R&B and the Kansas City scene. His biggest hit with the Kirk outfit was the patient "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" in 1936. "All the Jive Is Gone" is another of Terrell's finest moments -- hippies will say it is "Pha Out!" -- yet listeners who find the singer's high tenor voice eerie and/or obnoxious may think the song's title best describes Terrell's departure from the Kirk band

Until the Real Thing Comes Along
(Cahn, Chaplin, Freeman, Holiner, Nichols)


Transcribed from Andy Kirk and His Twelve Clouds of Joy, vocal by Ben Thigpen, recorded March 11, 1936.
From Andy Kirk and His Twelve Clouds of Joy, 1936-1937, Chronological Classics vol. 573.

I would work for you, slave for you,
Work my body to a grave for you;
If that ain't love, it's got to do,
Until the real thing comes along.

I would moan for you, groan for you,
Work my fingers to the bones for you,
If that ain't love, it's got to do,
Until the real thing comes along.

Maybe someday, I'll go far away,
I should leave, you know I won't stay;
I need you now more than ever, somehow,
If you should leave, you know we'd both grieve.

I would rob, steal, beg, borrow, and I'd lie for you,
Lay my body down and die for you,
If that ain't love, it's got to do,
Until the real thing comes along.

Maybe someday, I'll go far away,
I should leave, you know I won't stay,
I need you now more than ever, somehow,
If you should leave, you know we'd both grieve.

I would rob, steal, beg, borrow, and I'd lie for you,
Lay my body down and die for you,
If that ain't love, it's got to do,
Until the real thing comes along.



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what little is on the internet about this man:Elmer "Pha" Terrell (May 25, 1910, Kansas City, Missouri - October 14, 1945, Los Angeles) was an American jazz singer.

Terrell was working in nightclubs locally in Kansas City in the early 1930s as a singer, dancer, and emcee when he was discovered by Andy Kirk, who hired him to be the vocalist for his group the Twelve Clouds of Joy. Terrell sang with Kirk for eight years, from 1933 to 1941, and recorded with him extensively for Decca Records, singing hits such as 1936's "Until the Real Thing Comes Along".

After 1941 Terrell moved to Indianapolis to play with Clarence Love's territory band, then moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a soloist. Terrell died of kidney failure in 1945.