[Dixielandjazz] FW:"Star Dust"

[Russ Guarino]

If you are interested, go to my web site and listen to my duo.  I start with
Stardust, and it is the best recording I've ever heard. [ Why be modest? ].

www.classicswingband.com

Mark Allen Jones and I play it.

Russ Guarino

Stan Brager wrote:

> Thanks for posting this article, Bill and a belated "Happy Birthday".
>
> My favorite versions of "Star Dust" or "Stardust" are by Lionel Hampton
> (recorded at a Just Jazz concert in 1947 with a great contingent of all
> stars including Willie Smith, Barney Kessel, Slam Stewart, Charlie Shavers,
> Tommy Todd, Corky Corcoran, and Lee Young) and Ben Webster (2 versions - one
> recorded with the Johnny Otis band and the other with Duke Ellington at
> Fargo, North Dakota).
>
> When I first played the Hampton version on KLON, someone called shortly
> after it ended and trashed me for playing it saying that it was the worst
> version he'd ever heard. About 20 minutes later, another person called and
> said that it was the first time in many years that he's been so transfixed
> by a piece of music and wanted to know how to buy the recording.
>
> I guess that's why jazz is considered an art form.
>
> Stan
> Stan Brager
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bill Haesler" <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
> To: "dixieland jazz mail list" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2005 2:40 AM
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] FW:"Star Dust"
>
> > Dear friends,
> > This interesting article courtesy of our Australian Dance Bands list.
> > Kind regards,
> > Bill.
> > ______________________________________________________
> > Maybe If It Had Some Lyrics: A Century of 'Star Dust'
> >
> > by David Hinckley
> > New York Daily News, April 22, 2005
> >
> > Like all smart music publishers who honed their chops in Tin Pan
> > Alley, Irving Mills knew no song would be a hit if you didn't work
> > it.
> >
> > In 1931, then, he decided to dust off a composition that had already
> > done pretty well for Mills Music, an instrumental called "Star Dust"
> > by a kid from Indiana.
> >
> > Maybe if it had some lyrics, Mills figured, he could promote it into
> > a new round of recordings. The composer, one Hoagy Carmichael, had
> > recently moved to New York. Carmichael wasn't a lyricist, though, so
> > his arrival didn't bring the song any closer to a set of words.
> >
> > Mills first tried to write "Star Dust" lyrics himself. When they all
> > turned out lousy, he assigned the project to one of his staff
> > writers, Mitchell Parish.
> >
> > Parish later remembered that he took on this job only reluctantly --
> > but in fact, writing lyrics "cold" like this was more or less his
> > specialty. Over the years he added lyrics to hundreds of melodies,
> > from "Sophisticated Lady" to "Deep Purple" and "Sleigh Ride."
> >
> > As an instrumental, "Star Dust" had been performed two ways. The
> > Chocolate Dandies and Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra had done it as
> > a "hot" tune, while Isham Jones slowed it down to waltz tempo.
> >
> > For his part, Parish heard it as a sad song.
> >
> > An unbearably sad song.
> >
> > And he wrote lyrics to match:
> >
> > Sometimes I wonder why I spend
> > The lonely nights
> > 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, and now my consolation
> > Is in the stardust of a song...
> >
> > Critics thought the whole thing was brilliant, 26 seamless lines
> > rich
> > in metaphor and yet beautifully direct in their sense of aching
> > loss -
> > - crushing sorrow expressed so exquisitely it almost makes you want
> > to go on living:
> >
> > Though I dream in vain, in my heart you will remain
> > My stardust melody
> > The memory of love's refrain.
> >
> > There is some evidence Mills didn't share that initial enthusiasm.
> > He
> > waited two years, until 1933, to send the lyrics to the Library of
> > Congress for copyright.
> >
> > He did, however, immediately put them into circulation.
> >
> > Within days the song, with its new words, was being performed on a
> > remote broadcast from the Cotton Club by Mills' Blue Rhythm Band,
> > fronted by Irving's brother Sidney Mills. The Blue Rhythm Band was
> > also the first to record it, in May 1931, with Chick Bullock on
> > vocals.
> >
> > By August, Bing Crosby had chimed in, and soon it had become a
> > favorite with sweet bands. Eddy Duchin played it as a theme during
> > his long run at the Central Park Casino. In November, three "hot"
> > versions recorded by Louis Armstrong gave "Star Dust" a new
> > dimension: hip glamour.
> >
> > Daily Mirror columnist Walter Winchell, whose prestige and reach
> > made
> > him one of the most influential music critics of the day,
> > declared "Star Dust" a song against which all other popular songs
> > would be measured.
> >
> > And indeed, far from fading away in the manner of most popular
> > music, "Star Dust" just kept twinkling.
> >
> > In 1936, RCA had two of its most popular artists, Benny Goodman and
> > Tommy Dorsey, record versions it put back-to-back on a 78 rpm
> > single.
> > Goodman's was instrumental, Dorsey's vocal, and RCA reported it was
> > the company's best-selling record of both 1936 and 1938.
> >
> > Interestingly, the most popular version, recorded in the late '30s,
> > was an instrumental, by Artie Shaw. To this day, many
> > traditionalists
> > consider Shaw's to be the definitive "Star Dust."
> >
> > In fact, many traditionalists respect anyone who can do a good "Star
> > Dust," for the song was never easy for anyone to record. Carmichael
> > himself had tried to record it at a 1930 session where his musicians
> > included Bix Beiderbecke, and he finally gave it up, saying he and
> > the band could never find a comfortable enough groove.
> >
> > But that didn't stop the flow, and by the late '30s "Star Dust" had
> > itself a reputation. Orson Welles' famous "War of the World" radio
> > broadcast on Halloween night 1938, a fiction written as if a series
> > of real news bulletins were interrupting real programming, included
> > a
> > musical segment with a hotel remote of "Star Dust" by "Ramon
> > Raquello's Orchestra."
> >
> > Soldiers landing in the Philippines during World War II were greeted
> > by a native combo playing "Star Dust." The song became Glenn
> > Miller's
> > first V-Disc. Soon it had been translated into 36 languages.
> >
> > And Mitchell Parish grew to be a very old man, and still the world
> > was playing his song.
> >
> > By the early 1990s, more than 1,200 versions of "Star Dust" had been
> > recorded -- not counting Ramon Raquello's, but including Frank
> > Sinatra's, Elke Sommer's, Lionel Hampton's, Wynton Marsalis' and
> > Liberace's. Parish always said there was only one version he never
> > liked much, Ringo Starr's.
> >
> > And by now an evening sky full of Broadway luminaries had mounted a
> > Parish tribute show, brimming with the most famous of the hundreds
> > of
> > standards he had put words to over the many years. "Star Dust," of
> > course, was the standout -- and that, of course, was what the show
> > was titled, six decades after Parish put the words on paper.
> > _____________________________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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