from The New York Times, April 2, 1993

Mitchell Parish, 92, the Lyricist Of 'Star Dust' and 'Volare' Dies

by Stephen Holden

Mitchell Parish, who wrote the lyrics for "Star Dust," one of the most beloved of all American popular songs, died late Wednesday evening at the New York Hospital in Manhattan.

The cause was complications of a stroke, a hospital spokesman said.

The melody of "Star Dust" was completed by Hoagy Carmichael in 1927, and Mr. Parish added lyrics in 1929. It is widely considered the quintessential expression of romantic nostalgia in popular song before rock:

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.

Thus goes the lyric for a ballad that is a long, wistful flashback to younger days.

Mr. Parish who 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."

He tended to write his lyrics to completed melodies, hits that originated in other languages, or adaptations of classical music. In addition to Carmichael, the composers whose music to which he set words included Sammy Fain, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Leroy Anderson and Peter DeRose.

Evolution of a Standard

Mr. Parish was born in Lithuania on July 10, 1900. He came to the United States as an infant and grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He planned to study medicine but changed careers after a doctor gave some of his verses to a music publisher. His first steady employer was the music publisher Jack Mills, who signed him for $12 a week to write comedy lyrics for vaudeville acts and to be a song-plugger. His first hit, "Carolina Rolling Stone," was recorded by the musical comedy team Van and Schneck for Columbia Records in 1922.

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 composed 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 orchestrated 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.

In 1986, the song became the title of a revue of Mr. Parish's lyrics. It was mounted off-Broadway, then moved briefly to Broadway the following year, where it was the last production in the Biltmore Theater.

A Day Job in Court

While working as a songwriter, Mr. Parish also studied law and foreign languages. From 1935 to 1945 he worked as a court clerk, swearing in witnesses at criminal trials in lower Manhattan.

"Growing up on the Lower East Side, we didn't see stars," Mr. Parish later recalled. "I don't want to psychoanalyze myself, but I sometimes think that all those song lyrics about the moon and the stars represented an escape. They expressed a longing for what I couldn't see.

He is survived by a daughter, Ricky Goldstein of New York City and Boca Raton, Fla., and by a son, Larry Parish of Peekskill, N.Y.

Funeral services are to be held on Sunday at 1:30 P.M. at Riverside Memorial Chapel, Amsterdam Avenue at 76th Street, Manhattan, and will be open to the public.

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