“Star Dust” | Stories of Standards

Tune in to First Take with Lando and Chavis – weekdays from 6-9 am MT – for Stories of Standards to hear our favorite versions of this song all week long!

“Star Dust” began on 10/31/1927, when Hoagy Carmichael and His Pals recorded the initial instrumental version of the song. A second recording made the following year was rejected and year after that Mills Music asked Mitchell Parish to write lyrics. This resulted in the version which became one the most recorded songs ever. The title on the first sheet music release was given as “Star Dust”, while the 1927 recording gave the title as “STARDUST”. In Carmichael’s memoir, “The Stardust Road”, he said that the melody came to him while visiting his old university campus, reminiscing and gazing at a starlit sky.

More than 1500 recordings of “Star Dust” have been made and Carmichael’s original 1927 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1995; in 2004 it was chosen by the Library of Congress for addition to the National Recording Registry. Versions by Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Paul Weston and Bing Crosby were listed on “Billboard Magazine’s“ 1955 list of all-time popular songs.

Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981) was born in Bloomington, Indiana and met Bix Beiderbecke while attending Indiana University. Having passed the bar, he went to Florida to practice law, but abandoned that for music when he learned one of his tunes (“Washboard Blues”) had been recorded. After a short time back in Indiana he went to New York, where he and his music became known to many, including Johnny Mercer, who became another lifelong friend. Carmichael moved to Hollywood in 1936 and a year later began his career as an actor first in movies, then in television. He also appeared on the radio in the 1940s.

When very young Mitchell Parish (1900-1993) moved from Shreveport, Louisana, to New York City, eventually studying law before going into music instead. Starting off in Tin Pan Alley as a staff writer, then songwriter for vaudeville, he went on to popular music and many regard him as the poet laureate of songwriting. Parish wrote a book of verse, performed and lectured at theaters and universities in the U. S. and Canada, was a member of the Writers Advisory Council of ASCAP, an active member and director of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.