"Until the Real Thing Comes Along": Song history, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video

"Until the Real Thing Comes Along"

Show: The song is one of many from the Lew Leslie produced and staged revue Rhapsody in Black, which was described in its program at the Sam H. Harris Theater in New York City as "A Symphony of Blue Notes and Black Rhythm." Songs for the all black production were written by Mann Holiner (lyrics) and Alberta Nichols (music) as well as by Dorothy Fields (lyrics) and Jimmy McHugh (music), one song of theirs being "I'm Feeling Blue." Rhapsody in Black starred Ethel Waters and featured the music of Pike Davis' Continental Orchestra. The show was successful enough to return to the Paramount Theater in New York during the summer of 1932, after a tour to Chicago, Boston and Pittsburg following its original 80 night Broadway run in 1931.

Song Title and Songwriters: Five individuals receive words and music credit for the published version of "Until the Real Thing Comes Along." Sometimes multiple credits like this indicate someone (or ones) is/arecutting in; that is getting their name on the sheet music because they can, not because they were actively involved in the songwriting. In this case, however, at least four of the five have impressive songwriting credentials and did collaborate on writing the song, even if at different times. The original 1931 version from the revue Rhapsody in Black, for which the song was written (introduced by Ethel Waters) bore the title "Till the Real Thing Comes Along" with music by Alberta Nichols and lyrics by her husband Mann Holiner. Several years later, before the song was published in 1936, Saul Chaplin (music) and Sammy Cahn (words) made some alterations including changing the title to "Until the Real Thing Comes Along.") (See Hischak, pp. 381-382.)

Currently, no information is available on the fifth individual to receive songwriting credit, L. E. Freeman. If you have some, please let us know by submitting a comment.

JWags (11/30/2015 23:05:36): The text of the song history asked for anyone to comment who had information about the named composer L.E. Freeman. Well, in the book "Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to BeBop, A History" by Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix, on page 141, they explain that Freeman was the saxophonist in the Three Chocolate Drops who heard the tune, but forgot some of the lyrics, so they made some up and performed it a lot. Freeman wisely slapped a copyright on it and called it "The Slave Song."

Notes

• Other songs written for Rhapsody in Black currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook : none.
• Thomas Hischak, The Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia , Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 2002 .

Cite this page: "Until the Real Thing Comes Along": Song history, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/u/until_the_real_thing_comes_along.html