Today’s song of the day is an American jazz and big band song, “Star Dust,” by Artie Shaw.

Fun Facts:

• “Star Dust” was originally created by American musician and composer Hoagy Carmichael in 1927.
• Today, the song is considered a “jazz standard,” or a musical composition widely learned and performed as part of jazz musicians’ education and repertoire.
• The track was initially instrumental only. Two years after its composition, American lyricist Mitchell Parish was hired to add words to the piece.
• By 1940, “Star Dust” had become widely popular with both professionals and laymen alike and had secured its place as a jazz standard.
• Many artists and musicians covered the song throughout its popularity peak, including Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ringo Starr, Ella Fitzgerald, and Artie Shaw.
• The track has been featured in a number of films over the years, such as My Favorite Year (1982), Goodfellas (1990), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and Casino (1995).
• In 1995, “Star Dust” was formally inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
• Later, in 2004, it joined other culturally and historically significant songs in the National Recording Registry.

Lyrics:

And now the purple dusk 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 wander 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, how 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

Besides the garden wall, when stars are bright

You are in my arms

The nightingale 

Tells his fairytale

Of paradise, where roses grew

Though I dream in vain

In my heart it will remain

My stardust melodyThe memory of love’s refrain.