Stella By Starlight

Stella By Starlight is a jazz standard written by Victor Young and featured in "The Uninvited", a 1944 Paramount film. Originally a theme song, it was turned over to Ned Washington, who wrote the lyrics for it in 1946. The title had to be incorporated into the lyrics, which resulted in its unusual placement: the phrase appears about three quarters into the song, not in the beginning or the end.

Recording history

"Stella By Starlight" is one of the most popular standards, ranked number 10 by the website "jazzstandards.com". Its May 1947 recording by Harry James and his orchestra reached the 21st place in the pop charts. Two month later, the recording by Frank Sinatra with Axel Stordahl and his orchestra also rose to the 21st position.

Charlie Parker playing tenor saxophone made the first jazz recording of the song in January 1952, which was shortly followed by another tenor sax version by Stan Getz (December 1952), a piano version by Bud Powell, and a rendition by the big band of Stan Kenton. Instrumental versions were played by Miles Davis, which first appeared on "1958 Miles", and Dexter Gordon and vocal versions sung by Dick Haymes, Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, and many others.

Film scores

"Stella By Starlight" (performed by Victor Young orchestra) is a recurring theme in "The Uninvited". At a focal point of the film, the main character, Rod (Ray Milland) tells Stella (Gail Russell) that he is playing a serenade, "To Stella By Starlight".

The song also appeared in the following films:

* The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis singing to Stella Stevens)
* Sabrina (1995 film) (as part of the track "The Party Sequence")

External links

* [http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-0/stellabystarlight.htm jazzstandards.com]