Stardusty Music Monday ~ Mitchell Parish

Mitchell Parish (July 10, 1900 – March 31, 1993) was an American lyricist.

Parish was born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901 on the SS Dresden when he was less than a year old. They settled first in Louisiana where his paternal grandmother had relatives, but later moved to New York City. By the late 1920s Parish was a well-regarded Tin Pan Alley lyricist in New York City.

The melody of that lovely song, Star Dust, composed by Hoagy Carmichael in 1927, was enhanced by Mitchell Parish's lyrics in 1929. Remember them?

Sometimes I wonder why I spend the lonely night
Dreaming of a song
The melody haunts my reverie
And I am once again with you......

From a 1993 obituary in the New York Times:

Mr. Parish also contributed lyrics to many other well-known songs, including "Sweet Lorraine," "Sophisticated Lady," "Stars Fell on Alabama," "Deep Purple," "Stairway to the Stars," Moonlight Serenade" "Sleigh Ride," "Ruby" and "Volare"...........

The history of "Star Dust" illustrated Mr. Parish's conviction, expressed in a 1987 interview in The New York Times, that songs that are overnight sensations tend to be quickly forgotten, while those that become standards often take longer to be recognized.

The song was conceived by Carmichael in 1927 as a jazz instrumental, influenced by Bix Beiderbecke. Mr. Parish wrote the lyrics in 1929, and the song became a hit the following year in a recording by Isham Jones, the tenor saxophonist, band leader and songwriter who led one of the most popular orchestras of the pre-swing era. In 1931 Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong also had minor hits with the song.

Not yet a standard, "Star Dust" languished until the dawn of the swing era, when Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey both had hit versions released back to back on the same Victor 78-r.p.m. single. In late 1940, Artie Shaw recorded his classic version of "Star Dust" featuring Billy Butterfield's famous trumpet solo. Its popularity coincided with Tommy Dorsey's second version featuring Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers.

The song went on to have three other commercially significant lives, each in a different style. In 1957, it was a million-selling rhythm-and-blues hit for Billy Ward and the Dominoes. The same year, given a lush orchestral arrangement by Gordon Jenkins, it became the centerpiece of one of Nat (King) Cole's most successful albums, "Love Is the Thing." Of all the recorded versions of the song, Mr. Parish later recalled, Cole's was his personal favorite.

In 1978, Willie Nelson revived "Star Dust" as a spare country-swing ballad, making it the title of an album that sold three million copies.

There are countless versions of Stardust available, from just about every decade. Jo Stafford - what a great vocalist she was - is sometimes overlooked, so...

"Stardust" and Neil Gaiman

A name for movie buffs to watch in the near future will be Neil Gaiman, born November 10 1960 in Portchester (Portsmouth), UK. He's the author of "Stardust" a book made into a movie, just released. A couple more films based on his writing are due for release later this year. He has lived in the USA since the 1990s.

Gaiman is another writer of the J.K. Rowling, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett style. Fantasy, magic, fairytales, all spiced with humour and a soupcon of modern-day "cool", are his stock in trade. He started out writing for comics (known to the elite as graphic novels). I felt I'd seen Neil Gaiman's name somewhere before - he wrote "Don't Panic", which is the story of Douglas Adams' wonderful "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy", and its rise to fame.



(12 noon chart above, no birth time available)
The planets fall into one half of the chart - this configuration is known as a "bowl" pattern by astrologers. I've noticed that it's quite common among famous people. This may be due to the energy of the chart being concentrated on just six zodiac signs - more intense focus on the chosen career or interest, perhaps?

Sun, Mercury, Neptune all in Scorpio at 18, 11 and 9 degrees respectively. And some synchronicity here - I wrote about planetary nodes yesterday - well Neil Gaiman's natal Sun is on the planetary South node of Mercury at 18 Scorpio ! What better line-up for a fantasy writer? Mercury (writing planet) and Neptune(fantasy) in Scorpio (magnetic) conjoin to give his pen, or typing fingers, that essential touch of magical know-how. I don't know his time of birth, but whatever it is, the Moon would have to be in showy Leo.

I was at first surprised to find there are no planets in Air signs in this chart. The element of Air in astrology is usually connected to communication, e.g. writing. Perhaps the unknown ascendant provides some balance. But on second thoughts, Neil Gaiman isn't a cool airy intellectual, he's a storyteller, a weaver of magic, as described by those Scorpio planets.

This author is prolific, in addition to his other work he even writes a blog daily (HERE) - how surprising is that? Saturn in the sign it rules, Capricorn, is opposite Mars in Cancer, forming the base of the "bowl". Mars trines and Saturn sextiles Sun, indicating that energy for, and application to his work are permanent factors in this man's personality. Venus in Sagittarius trines Uranus in Leo. I wonder if Venus in Sagittarius relates to his immigration (I have this placement too).

We saw "Stardust" at the weekend. I enjoyed it, but didn't feel it was a good as it could have been. The basic plot was fun, but I was jarred by some of the dialogue and a few of the performances were definitely second-rate. I'd have preferred to see unknown actors playing the lead parts. Claire Danes (the fallen star) and Charlie Cox (the hero) had little appeal. A couple of unknown amateurs could probably have brought more magic to these characters. Ricky Gervais's dialogue, and costume for me, was way out of place. I felt quite embarrassed! None of this is the fault of the author, of course. I haven't yet read the book "Stardust", but I intend to do so, as well as another of Mr Gaiman's works "American Gods".

There's an illuminating article about Gaiman, from 2005 in the UK Daily Telegraph HERE, also an hour long YouTube presentation "Google Authors" featuring Neil Gaiman . I found it fascinating. He comes over as a very likeable guy, and he looks SO Scorpio! An audience member asks him, towards the end of the interview, whether he's interested in Tarot. He is. Of course!