Great American Songbook Saturday – Stardust

Today, I want to feature the amazing Hoagy Carmichael song, Stardust. I’m positive that the first time I heard this song was in the late 70’s when my grandpa used to play Willie Nelson’s Stardust album on cassette. When they first got their trailer/cottage up north, they didn’t have a TV right away, so we listened to the radio. My grandpa had two cassettes – Willie and Johnny Paycheck. He played Willie about four times more than Johnny.

Songfacts.com helps with the story of the song:

The composer/bandleader Hoagy Carmichael wrote this after giving up his law career in 1927 and first recorded it that year with his orchestra as a jazz number. According to legend, Carmichael came up with the song when he went for a walk under the stars and started thinking about former girlfriends.

Carmichael’s instrumental version did pretty well, and two years later, Mitchell Parish added lyrics and Carmichael reworked the song as a slow ballad. The bandleader/saxophonist Isham Jones recorded this new arrangement, which became the first of many hit records of the tune. The song became a Big Band standard, with just about every prominent bandleader and singer of the ’30s and ’40s performing it, making it one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century.

The song is one that has been covered by SO many artists, and many artists claim it as their favorite.

Willie Nelson calls this his favorite song and credits Booker T. Jones, his producer and arranger on the Stardust album, for showing him the right way to approach it.

In his autobiography, Willie, he recalled the first night he performed it with his band at the Austin Opera House. “There was a kind of stunned silence in the crowd for a moment, and then they exploded with cheering and whistling and applauding. The kids in the crowd thought ‘Stardust’ was a new song I had written. The older folks remembered the song well and loved it as much as I did.”

Songfacts claims that Bette Midler considers this her favorite song, with the lyrics, “And now the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart” her favorite words.

Apparently, Paul McCartney is also a big fan: he said in his Club Sandwich newsletter that it is the song he most wished he had written.

Billy Ward and the Dominoes did a unique rock and roll version of the song and took it to #12 US in 1957. That same year Nat King Cole’s version hit #79 US and #24 UK. Cole’s version proved most enduring and was revived when it was featured in the 1993 movie Sleepless In Seattle.

So let’s give it a listen!

Today we start with the birthday girl – Dinah Washington was born on this day in 1924. Here is her version.

The original – Hoagy Carmichael

Here is Willie’s version.

How about some Ella Fitgerald?

The fantastic version by Nat King Cole

Here’s Jo Stafford’s version

Billy Ward and the Dominoes (#12 in 1957)

I’m not too keen on this version by Frank Sinatra, but it is Sinatra after all….

Finally, here is Michael Buble’ and his version from the Crazy Love album.

What is your favorite version??