Songs from 1927 to 1941
Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael wrote the four songs here, each with a different partner: Mitchell Parish on Star Dust, Stuart Gorrell on Georgia on My Mind, Ned Washington on The Nearness of You and Johnny Mercer on Skylark. He records Star Dust and Georgia on My Mind himself, in 1927 and 1930. The page follows the songs through big bands, singers and small groups, from the 1920s to the 2000s.
Through the years
- 1920s
Hoagy Carmichael records the first version of Star Dust at Gennett in Richmond, Indiana, in October 1927, and the is part of that recording. Mitchell Parish adds lyrics in 1929.
- 1930s
Carmichael records Georgia on My Mind in New York in September 1930, with Bix Beiderbecke on cornet. Louis Armstrong records it and Star Dust in Chicago in 1931, and in Paris in 1935 Coleman Hawkins plays Star Dust with Django Reinhardt on guitar. Carmichael and Ned Washington write The Nearness of You in 1937 for a film that is never produced.
- 1940s
Big bands and singers carry all four songs. Artie Shaw's 1940 Star Dust sells a million copies, and Glenn Miller's orchestra, with Ray Eberle singing The Nearness of You, reaches No. 5 on the Billboard chart that year. Gene Krupa's band records Skylark in 1941 with Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Anita O'Day singing. Billie Holiday records Georgia on My Mind in 1941, and Sarah Vaughan sings The Nearness of You in 1949.
- 1950s
Singers and small groups take all four songs. Carmichael sings Skylark with the Pacific Jazzmen in 1956, the year Nat King Cole sings Star Dust with strings and Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong trade vocal lines on The Nearness of You. Art Tatum plays Star Dust alone in 1953, John Coltrane plays it as a ten-minute ballad in 1958, and the Dave Brubeck Quartet records Georgia on My Mind in 1959.
Oscar Peterson The Nearness of You · 1951Art Tatum Star Dust · 1953The Stan Getz Quintet The Nearness of You · 1953Clifford Brown - Max Roach Quintet with Neal Hefti Orchestra Star Dust · 1955Milt Jackson The Nearness of You · 1955Hoagy Carmichael with the Pacific Jazzmen Skylark · 1956John Lewis with Jim Hall, Percy Heath and Chico Hamilton Skylark · 1956Nat King Cole Star Dust · 1956 - 1960s
Ray Charles records Georgia on My Mind in March 1960 and it becomes a No. 1 single. Ben Webster plays it live in Hollywood that October, and the Oscar Peterson Trio records it in 1962. Red Garland plays The Nearness of You alone in 1960, the Jazz Messengers record Skylark in 1962 with a Freddie Hubbard solo, and Ella Fitzgerald sings it in 1964 on the last of her Song Book albums.
- 1970s
Stan Getz and Jimmy Rowles play Skylark as a duo in 1975, and Paul Desmond plays it on alto sax for his CTI album Skylark, in an arrangement by Don Sebesky. Dexter Gordon's quartet records Georgia on My Mind in 1976, and Willie Nelson puts it on his 1978 album Stardust. In 1979 Ray Charles's 1960 recording becomes the official state song of Georgia.
- 1980s
Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass record Georgia on My Mind as a voice and guitar duo for Speak Love in March 1983. In 1984 Wynton Marsalis opens the album Hot House Flowers with Star Dust, playing trumpet with a and strings arranged and conducted by Robert Freedman.
- 1990s
Pharoah Sanders records The Nearness of You with his quartet in July 1990, and the track title carries a dedication to Eddy Moore. Archie Shepp's quartet records Georgia on My Mind in Monster, Holland, in January 1992, and Shirley Horn sings it in 1993 on an album that pays tribute to Ray Charles. Keith Jarrett's trio plays Skylark live at the Blue Note in New York in 1994.
- 2000s
Michael Brecker plays saxophone and James Taylor sings The Nearness of You, recorded in New York in December 2000 with Hancock, Metheny, Haden and DeJohnette.