MUSIC CLIP - OSCAR PETERSON, "MOONGLOW"

Welcome to Afterglow, a show of vocal jazz and popular song from the Great American Songbook. I’m your host, Mark Chilla.

The twinkle of stars have always been an inspiration for songwriters, and so on this program, we’ll also use the night sky as our muse. Coming up, I’ll play some of the most beloved star songs from the auteurs of the Great American Songbook, classic tunes like “Stella By Starlight,” “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star,” and “When You Wish Upon A Star.” We’ll feature Stardust melodies by Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Kurt Weill, sung by Frank Sinatra, Anita O’Day, Ella Fitzgerald and more.

It’s STARRY EYED, coming up next on Afterglow

MUSIC - BILLIE HOLIDAY , "STARS FELL ON ALABAMA"

Billie Holiday with the Frank Perkins and Mitchell Parish tune “Stars Fell on Alabama,” from the 1957 Verve album Songs for Distingue Lovers, one of Holiday’s final recording sessions. This song is actually based a real-life event from 1833. One night at 3 in the morning a shower of tens of thousands of meteors streaked across the night sky near Muscle Shoals, Alabama illuminating everything below.

MUSIC CLIP - CANNONBALL ADDERLEY, "STARS FELL ON ALABAMA"

MUSIC CLIP - DJANGO REINHARDT, "I SAW STARS"

Mark Chilla here on Afterglow. We’re looking up at the stars on this week’s show, exploring some songs from the Great American Songbook all about stars. We’ve done a similar thing on the show before, looking at moon songs, and as I was digging around trying to find all of those moon songs, I came across just as many about stars. 

I’m calling this show “Starry Eyed,” a phrase that pops up a handful of times in the Great American Songbook. One such instance is in the Kurt Weill and Langston Hughes song “Moon Faced, Starry Eyed,” a song from their 1946 opera collaboration Street Scene. 

Let’s hear that one right now, followed by some other perhaps more familiar star songs. This is Johnny Mercer with Benny Goodman and his Orchestra performing “Moon Faced, Starry Eyed,” on Afterglow.

MUSIC - JOHNNY MERCER, "MOON FACED, STARRY EYED"

MUSIC - JUNE CHRISTY, "WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR"

MUSIC - ELLA FITZGERALD, "STELLA BY STARLIGHT"

Ella Fitzgerald in 1961, from her album Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie with the Victor Young and Ned Washington classic tune “Stella By Starlight,” a song that was written for the 1944 horror film The Uninvited. We’ll hear more starry songs from Ella later in the hour. Before that, another starry film song, also with lyrics by Ned Washington. That was “When You Wish Upon A Star,” from the 1940 Disney film Pinocchio, performed by June Christy on her 1960 album The Cool School. And starting that set, the Kurt Weill and Langston Hughes song “Moon Faced, Starry Eyed,” performed by Johnny Mercer in 1947.

Let’s hear some starry songs now performed by Frank Sinatra. First in this set is a song that’s often associated with Sinatra’s pal Bing Crosby. “Swinging On A Star” was actually written for Crosby by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke for the 1944 film Going My Way, and it was inspired by an offhand comment Bing made to his son Gary, telling him “If you don’t go to school, you might grow up to be a mule." 

Here is Frank Sinatra in 1964 with Van Heusen and Burke’s “Swinging on A Star,” on Afterglow.

MUSIC - FRANK SINATRA, "SWINGING ON A STAR"

MUSIC - FRANK SINATRA , "QUIET NIGHTS OF QUIET STARS (CORCOVADO)"

Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim from their 1967 duet album performing Jobim’s song “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars,” a bossa nova tune with English lyrics later added by Gene Lees. Before that, Frank Sinatra in 1964 with “Swinging On A Star,” a song originally written for his pal Bing Crosby.

We’re looking at star songs this hour. I’ll turn now to a song written way back in 1932 for the Broadway musical Music In The Air. It comes from one of the American songbook’s most celebrated lyricists, Oscar Hammerstein II.

This is jazz singer Annie Ross, one year before she joined the jazz trio Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, performing a delicate version of the Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein song “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star,” on Afterglow.

MUSIC - ANNIE ROSS, "I’VE TOLD EV’RY LITTLE STAR"

MUSIC - ANITA O’DAY, "STAR EYES"

Anita O’Day from the expanded CD reissue of Anita Sings the Winners with Gene de Paul and Don Raye tune “Star Eyes,” a song probably most famous because of Charlie Parker. Before that, Annie Ross from 1956 with “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star.” We’ll have more star songs after a short break.

MUSIC CLIP - CHARLIE PARKER, "STAR EYES"

I’m Mark Chilla, and you’re listening to Afterglow

MUSIC CLIP - DUKE ELLINGTON, "THE STAR-CROSSED LOVERS (AKA PRETTY GIRL) "

MUSIC CLIP - DAVE MCKENNA, "STAIRWAY TO THE STARS"

Welcome back to Afterglow, I’m Mark Chilla. We’re looking at star songs on this program. And let’s continue our star song journey with a few starry numbers performed by Ella Fitzgerald early in her career. Both of these songs have lyrics by the great lyricist Mitchell Parish, who will come up again as a star-song lyricist before this hour is up. This first one started life as an instrumental tune by Matty Malneck and Frank Signorelli called “Park Avenue Fantasy,” although Parish was the one who made it starry.

We’ll start with Ella Fitzgerald and her Orchestra in 1939 with “Stairway To The Stars,” on Afterglow

MUSIC - ELLA FITZGERALD, "STAIRWAY TO THE STARS"

MUSIC - ELLA FITZGERALD, "THE STARLIT HOUR"

Ella Fitzgerald and her Famous Orchestra in 1940 with “The Starlit Hour,” written by Peter De Rose with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. Before that, Fitzgerald in 1939 with “Stairway To The Stars,” written by Matty Malneck and Frank Signorelli, with lyrics also by Mitchell Parish.

We’ve heard star songs this hour by both Jimmy Van Heusen and Kurt Weill this hour, so let’s hear one more by each of these songwriters. This first one comes from Van Heusen along with lyricist Eddie Delange. Like we heard in the last song, “stars” are typically the backdrop for love—we heard Ella sing “Love will bloom and flower in The starlit hour.” But what of stars when that love has faded? That’s the topic of this tune.

Here is singer Jeri Southern in 1958 with “Shake Down The Stars,” on Afterglow.

MUSIC - JERI SOUTHERN, "SHAKE DOWN THE STARS"

MUSIC - TONY BENNETT, "LOST IN THE STARS"

Tony Bennett with another Kurt Weill song. That was “Lost in the Stars,” from the musical of the same name based on the novel Cry the Beloved Country, and the last musical that Weill ever worked on. Before that Jeri Southern and guitarist Johnny Smith from their 1958 duo album with the heartbreaking Jimmy Van Heusen song “Shake Down the Stars.” 

This next star song you may know from its placement in the 1952 musical Singin’ In The Rain. It’s the last big number of film, as Gene Kelly sings the song to Debbie Reynolds, proclaiming her as the true star of the show. The song, like almost all of the songs from Singin’ In The Rain, was written years before the film by songwriter Nacio Herb Brown and lyricist and producer Arthur Freed. 

Here’s a version of that tune from 1935, the same year it was written. This is Louis Armstrong with “You are my Lucky Star,” on Afterglow.

MUSIC - LOUIS ARMSTRONG, "YOU ARE MY LUCKY STAR"

MUSIC - KENNY BURRELL, "I’LL BUY YOU A STAR"

MUSIC - DINAH WASHINGTON, "A HANDFUL OF STARS"

The 1940 Jack Lawreance and Ted Shapiro song “A Handful Of Stars,” performed there by Dinah Washington in 1962. Before that, guitarist Kenny Burrell in 1961 singing the Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields song “I’ll Buy You a Star,” originally written for the 1951 musical A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. And before that, Louis Armstrong in 1935 with “You are my Lucky Star.”

We’ll close off this show with a starry song that’s near and dear to my heart. Not only was Hoagy Carmichael’s “Star Dust” written in my adopted hometown of Bloomington, Indiana, but the sweeping melody is truly one of the most gorgeous ones from the Great American Songbook. The lyrics are again by Mitchell Parish, but the title came from Carmichael’s friend Stuart Gorrell, who described the melody as, quote, “dust from stars drifting down through the summer sky.”

This is Nat King Cole in 1957 with Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish’s “Star Dust,” on Afterglow.

MUSIC - NAT KING COLE, "STARDUST"

Nat King Cole with Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish’s immortal “Star Dust.”

MUSIC CLIP - LOUIS ARMSTRONG, "STAR DUST"

And thanks for tuning in to this star songs edition of Afterglow.

Afterglow is part of the educational mission of Indiana University and produced by WFIU Public Radio in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. The executive producer is John Bailey.

Playlists for this and other Afterglow programs are available on our website. That’s at indianapublicmedia.org/afterglow.

I’m Mark Chilla, and join me next week for our mix of Vocal Jazz and popular song from the Great American Songbook, here on Afterglow