Obituaries : M. Parish; Lyricist of ‘Star Dust,’ Other Hits

Mitchell Parish, who penned the memorable lyrics for Hoagy Carmichael’s “Star Dust,” history’s most-recorded song and arguably the most popular song of the 20th Century, has died. He was 92.

Parish died Wednesday at New York Hospital in New York City, where he had been treated since he suffered a stroke March 14. He also had cancer of the stomach, a spokeswoman said.

“It really didn’t hit me when Hoagy played it for me,” Parish reminisced about “Star Dust” last year for Los Angeles Times jazz critic Leonard Feather. “It was just another swing tune. But then Victor Young wrote an arrangement for Isham Jones’ orchestra in the tempo it’s known by today. That was what inspired me to write the lyrics, and in 1931 the vocal versions began to come out.”

John Edward Hasse, curator of American music for the Smithsonian Institution, once called the song “the most-recorded song in the history of the world” and “that right there qualifies it as the song of the century.” It has been recorded more than 1,300 times, beginning as an instrumental in 1927.

Bing Crosby’s 1931 version helped to popularize Parish’s memorable verse: “And now the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart. High up in the sky the little stars climb, always reminding me that we’re apart. You wandered down the lane and far away, leaving me a song that will not die. Love is now the stardust of yesterday, the music of the years gone by.”

In 1961, Frank Sinatra was so impressed by the verse that he recorded it as a song unto itself, omitting the nostalgic chorus, which begins: “When our love was new, and each kiss an inspiration.”

Despite the song’s immortality, Parish said last year that he would be unable to sell “Star Dust” to a publisher today.

“They wouldn’t want to hurt my feelings,” he told The Times, “so they’d just say it wouldn’t sell records, it’s too good for today’s market. They’d get rid of me with that kind of compliment.”

Parish penned the lyrics for more than 700 songs, including such staples as “Deep Purple,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Moonlight Serenade,” “Stars Fell on Alabama,” “Dream, Dream, Dream,” “Volare” and “The Syncopated Clock.”

A revue of more than 30 of his songs, titled “Stardust,” was performed on Broadway in 1987, and toured the country, including an engagement last year at Los Angeles’ Wilshire Theatre.

Born as Michael Parish on July 10, 1900, in Lithuania, he moved to New York with his family as an infant. A music publisher later changed his first name to Mitchell.

Parish attended Columbia University, intending to become a doctor. But a music publisher saw verses that he wrote for his own pleasure, and offered him $12 a week to write for Tin Pan Alley.

His first success was “Sweet Lorraine” in 1928, a song composed by Cliff Burwell and popularized by Rudy Vallee.

Parish is survived by a daughter, Ricky Goldstein, and a son, Dr. Larry Parish.