Song No. 32 "Star Dust"

Music by Hoagy Carmichael

Words by Mitchell Parish

How can you actually spell out the magic of "Star Dust"? One of America's greatest lyricists, the late Oscar Hammerstein II, tried in the preface of his book Lyrics:  "Star Dust" rambles and roams like a truant schoolboy in a meadow. Its structure is loose, its pattern complex. Yet it has attained the kind of long-lived popularity that few songs can claim. What has it got? I'm not certain. I know only that it is beautiful and I like to hear it. It is a mood-creating song. It has repose and wistfulness. It is something very special, all by itself. Anyone who tried to imitate it would be a fool."

In the 40-odd years of its life, "Star Dust" has become "our song" to millions of couples--the unrivaled "favorite song" of our century. Yet, oddly, "Star Dust" never really was a "hit" in the accepted Tin Pin Alley sense. Although the song was published in 1929, its first million-selling record wasn't made until 1940-an instrumental by Artie Shaw and his orchestra. But presently "Star Dust" has perhaps been recorded over a 1000 times in different versions; it has been arranged and printed for every range of voice, every solo instrument and just about every imaginable combination of voices and instruments. It probably is the only song which ever had recordings made of its verse alone, without the familiar chorus.

The   "Star Dust" saga began one fall night in 1927. Hoagy Carmichael, recently graduated attorney, pianist and avid jazz fan, had returned to Indiana University, hoping perhaps to piece together some fragmented memories of his undergraduate days. Inevitably he visited a romantic spot then called the "spooning wall." Sitting there alone he looked up at the clear, star-filled sky and a phrase of music formed in his mind. He rushed over to the Book Nook, a campus restaurant, to work it out on the piano. Later he played the tune for his old roommate, Stuart Gorrell, who gave "Star Dust" its name.

It seems odd to us today that the most sentimental of ballads was conceived by Hoagy as a swingy-almost ragtime-piano piece. It wasn't until 1929 that Victor Young, then an arranger for the Isham Jones Orchestra, was inspired to slow it down, changing it from a "piano piece" to a "song." Mitchell Parish was asked in to write the lyrics and "Star Dust" was on its way. Parish recalls that Walter Winchell played a big part in bringing it to the public's ear. "He was so crazy about it that he plugged it almost daily in his column. Even years later, I remember sitting in the Copa with him one night listening to Nat "King" Cole. Nat sang "Star Dust" to a beautiful arrangement by Gordon Jenkins and everybody in the place, including Winchell, had a tear in his eye. I've heard the song done thousands of times, but I remember Nat's rendition above all others."
..........Excerpted from "The Readers Digest Treasury of Best Loved Songs."

Lyrics

And now the purple husk of twilight time
Steals across the meadows of my heart
High up in the sky the little stars climb
Always reminding me that we're apart
You wandered down the lane and far away
Leaving me a song that will not die
Love is now the stardust of yesterday
The music of the years gone by...

Sometimes I wonder why I spend the lonely night
Dreaming of a song?
The melody haunts my reverie
And I am once again with you
When our love was new
And each kiss an inspiration
But that was long ago
Now my consolation is in the Star Dust of your song...

Beside a garden wall, when stars are bright
You are in my arms....The nightingale tells his fairy tale
Of Paradise where roses grew...Tho I dream in vain,
In my heart it will remain...
My Star Dust melody....The memory of love's refrain

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