He asked my girlfriend if we could come over and sing some of the songs that we had written, which we did. After he heard the songs, he said that he knew someone in the record business by the name of Bob Shad.

Many of Harris's vocal recordings were comic novelty "talking blues" numbers not unlike the talking numbers of African-American comedian Bert Williams a style sometimes considered a precursor to modern rap music. These were probably arranged by pianist Skippy Anderson. In 1942 Harris and his entire band enlisted in the U.

Though successful as an orchestra leader Harris is remembered today for his recordings as a vocalist his voice work in animation (probably most famous later in his career for his roles as bears one being Baloo in Disney's The Jungle Book and as Little John in Disney's Robin Hood). Phil Harris (born Wonga Phillip Harris; June 24 1904 – August 11 1995) was an American singer songwriter jazz musician actor and comedian.