WILLIE NELSON - STARDUST

STARDUST

WILLIE NELSON

SONGWRITERS: SONGWRITER: HOAGY CARMICHAEL & MITCHELL PARISH

COUNTRY: U.S.A.

ALBUM: WILLIE NELSON

LABEL: SONY LEGACY

GENRE: EASY LISTENING

YEAR: 1978

Stardust is a 1978 album by Willie Nelson that spans the genres of pop, jazz, and country music. Its ten songs consist entirely of pop standards that Nelson picked from among his favorites. Nelson asked Booker T. Jones, who was his neighbor in Malibu at the time, to arrange a version of "Moonlight in Vermont". Impressed with Jones's work, Nelson asked him to produce the entire album. Nelson's decision to record such well-known tracks was controversial among Columbia executives because he had distinguished himself in the outlaw country genre. Recording of the album took only ten days.

Released in April, Stardust was met with high sales and near-universal positive reviews. It peaked at number one in Billboard's Top Country Albums and number thirty in the Billboard 200. Meanwhile, it charted at number one in Canadian RPM's Country Albums and number twenty-eight in RPM's Top Albums. The singles "Blue Skies" and "All of Me" peaked respectively at numbers one and three in Billboard's Hot Country Singles.

In 1979, Nelson won a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for the song "Georgia on My Mind". Stardust was on the Billboard's Country Album charts for ten years—from its release until 1988. The album also reached number one in New Zealand and number five in Australia in 1980. In 2003, the album was ranked number 257 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was originally certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in December 1978. In 1984, when it was certified triple platinum, Nelson was the highest-grossing concert act in the United States. In 2002, the album was certified quintuple platinum, and it was later inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame class of 2015.

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 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 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

Now my consolation

Is in the stardust of a song

Beside the garden wall

When stars are bright

You are in my arms

The nightingale tells his fairy tale

Of paradise where roses grew

Though I dream in vain

In my heart it always will remain

My stardust melody

The memory of love's refrain

When our love was new

And each kiss an inspiration