Stardust

Songs just don’t get any more famous than Hoagy Carmichael‘s “Stardust” (lyrics by Mitchell Parrish).

Here’s John Edward Hasse’s opening paragraph for the Masterpiece column in the Wall Street Journal’s Review section:

What is probably the most-recorded American song in history began as melodic fragments imagined by a former Indiana University student named Hoagland “Hoagy” Carmichael.

When he finished fiddling with his wordless tune, he had the beginnings of an American classic, “Stardust,” that surpassed his later evergreens such as “Skylark,” “Lazy River,” and “Georgia On My Mind,” and stood apart from all other popular songs.