album rating: ★★★★★
a) Genre
Standards / Country pop / Jazz-folk. Stardust is Willie Nelson's twenty-second studio album and a landmark of the Great American Songbook tradition. Its ten songs — all pre-existing standards ranging from the 1920s through the 1940s — are drawn from the works of Hoagy Carmichael ('Stardust', 'Georgia on My Mind'), Irving Berlin ('Blue Skies'), George and Ira Gershwin ('Someone to Watch Over Me'), Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson ('September Song'), Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh ('On the Sunny Side of the Street' / 'All of Me'), Jack Blackburn and Karl Suessdorf ('Moonlight in Vermont'), Bob Russell and Duke Ellington ('Don't Get Around Much Anymore'), and the traditional 'Unchained Melody'. The album spans pop, jazz, country, and folk, unified by the sparseness of the arrangements and the intimacy of the performance.
b) Release
Original US release: Columbia Records (April 1978; catalogue JC 35305), vinyl LP, manufactured by Columbia Records / CBS Inc.; phonographic copyright ℗ 1978 CBS Inc. The Columbia catalogue reference JC 35305 appears as the primary and alternate catalogue number on different pressings. Some original copies included a hype sticker promoting 'Georgia on My Mind', 'Blue Skies', and 'All of Me'. Cover art: a painting of the Pleiades constellation by Susanna Clark, wife of Texas songwriter Guy Clark; Columbia's marketing department was critical of the cover's lack of a Nelson portrait, but Nelson dismissed the objection. A 1999 reissue added two previously unreleased tracks. A 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition (Columbia/Sony BMG, 2008; Discogs catalogue r7123982) added a second disc of standards from other Nelson albums, presented in a 16-track bonus disc; none of the bonus tracks date from the original Stardust sessions. The album was certified Platinum in December 1978, triple platinum in 1984, and quintuple (5x) platinum in 2002 by the RIAA.
c) Production
Produced and arranged by Booker T. Jones. The collaboration arose from an informal neighbourhood encounter: Nelson, living in Malibu in 1977, met Jones — then also living in the neighbourhood — and asked him to arrange 'Moonlight in Vermont' as a test. Delighted with the result, he asked Jones to produce and arrange the entire album. Booker T. Jones (born 12 November 1944, Memphis, Tennessee, USA) is one of the most celebrated figures in American soul and R&B: as the leader of Booker T. and the MGs — the house band at Stax Records — he co-wrote and performed 'Green Onions' (1962), and played on landmark recordings by Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, and many others. He also produced Bill Withers's debut album Just as I Am (1971). Jones brought his B-3 Hammond organ and piano to the Nelson sessions, played both instruments throughout, and wrote all the arrangements. His philosophy for the album was to keep the arrangements sparse and free of backup singers or additional strings. Nelson's band performed with him: Jody Payne (guitar), Bee Spears (bass), Paul English and Rex Ludwig (drums), Bobbie Nelson (piano, Willie's sister), and Mickey Raphael (harmonica, recorded in a tiled bathroom shower to achieve a distinctive ambient sound). The entire album was recorded in nine to ten days.
d) Recording
Recorded between 3 and 12 December 1977 in the Enactron Truck, a mobile recording studio, parked outside the Hollywood Hills home of guitarist and producer Brian Ahern — who was at the time the husband of Emmylou Harris — at his residence in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA. The decision not to use a conventional recording studio was consistent with Nelson's desire to create an intimate, home-like atmosphere for the performances. Credited on the Discogs pressing as 'Recorded and Mixed in the Enactron Truck'. The album was released in April 1978.
e) Reception
Stardust was met with near-universal critical acclaim and was a major commercial success, defying the scepticism of Columbia Records executives who had initially pressed fewer copies than normal, anticipating a flop. It peaked at number 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, where it remained until June 1988 — a full decade — and at number 30 on the Billboard 200. In Canada it reached number 1 on RPM Country Albums and number 28 overall. The singles 'Blue Skies' and 'All of Me' peaked at numbers 1 and 3 respectively on Billboard's Hot Country Songs. The album was certified Platinum in December 1978 and eventually quintuple platinum by 2002, with total sales of approximately five million copies in the United States alone. Billboard praised 'his distinctive, soft vocal style' and the 'well suited' material. Texas Monthly described it as blending 'the stark economy of Red Headed Stranger with an underlying current of church spiritualism.' Rolling Stone ranked it number 257 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list (2003). Nelson won the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1979 for 'Georgia on My Mind'. Nelson became the highest-grossing concert act in the United States in 1979. The Newsweek cover of 14 August 1978 featured Nelson under the title 'King of Country Music'. AllMusic praised Nelson's 'facility as an interpreter' and called the album 'quite a feat considering their age and popularity.'
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born 29 April 1933, Abbott, Texas, USA) is an American country musician, singer, songwriter, actor, and activist, one of the most celebrated and beloved figures in the history of American popular music. He was raised by his paternal grandparents after his parents separated. He began playing guitar at age six and was performing professionally in dance halls and clubs as a teenager. He moved to Nashville in 1960, where he quickly established himself as a songwriter: 'Crazy' (recorded by Patsy Cline, 1961, number 1 country) and 'Funny How Time Slips Away' (Billy Walker, 1961) and 'Hello Walls' (Faron Young, 1961) were among his early songwriting successes. Frustrated by Nashville's production conventions, he returned to Texas in 1972 and became a central figure of the 'outlaw country' movement, alongside Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and others. His breakthrough albums Red Headed Stranger (Columbia, 1975) and the compilation Wanted! The Outlaws (1976, the first certified platinum album in country music history) made him a global superstar. Stardust (1978) remains his bestselling album. He has received nine Grammy Awards, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song (2015). He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993 and the National Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2011. An outspoken advocate for the legalisation of cannabis, he co-chairs the advisory board of NORML. He has released over 90 studio albums.
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