Until the Real Thing Comes Along

One of the most covered songs of the swing era, this devotional torch song was a genuine group effort — Cahn among five credited contributors, a common practice in Tin Pan Alley where songs were often shaped by multiple hands before reaching a bandleader. Andy Kirk’s 1936 recording was a major hit, but it’s Billie Holiday’s 1942 recording that has endured as definitive.

Holiday’s interpretation transforms the lyric’s extravagant pledges of devotion into something aching and complex — proof that the best songs outlive the circumstances of their creation. Victoria Williams’s 2000 recording on Water to Drink, arranged by Van Dyke Parks, brings an oddball folk-jazz warmth to it that channels Holiday via Rickie Lee Jones.