Personnel: Willie Nelson (vocals, guitar); Jody Payne (guitar); Mickey Raphael (harmonica); Bobbie Nelson (piano); Booker T. Jones (organ); Bee Spears, Chris Ethridge (bass); Paul English, Rex Ludwig (drums).
Producer: Booker T. Jones.
Reissue producer: Al Quaglieri.
Includes liner notes by Mickey Raphael, Booker T. Jones and Willie Nelson.
Digitally remastered by Chris Athens (Sterling Sound, New York, New York).
This is part of Legacy's American Milestones series.
Personnel: Willie Nelson (vocals, guitar); Jody Payne (guitar); Mickey Raphael (harmonica); Booker T. Jones (piano, organ); Bob "Chicago" Nelson, Bobbie Nelson (piano); Rex Ludwig, Paul English (drums).
Audio Mixers: Al Quaglieri; Thom Cadley; Todd Whitelock.
Recording information: 12/03/1977-12/12/1977.
Photographers: Don Hunstein; David Gahr; Sandy Speiser; Dan Hunstein; Beverly Parker.
Arranger: Booker T. Jones.
15 years before Tony Bennett made the Great American Songbook safe for the MTV generation, there was Willie Nelson's STARDUST, one of the greatest "crossover" albums in history. The concept was simple: Willie singing a select group of familiar standards by composers such as Carmichael, Berlin, Weill, Ellington, the Gershwins, all in his familiar and inimitable style. Yet the result is not a quite a country treatment of these tunes. For one thing, the great R&B organist Booker T. Jones produced the session in addition to performing with Nelson's superb band featuring the estimable Mickey Raphael on harmonica. One of the enduring pleasures of STARDUST is the interplay between hushed organ, keening harmonica and Nelson's own stately gut-string guitar as well as his beautifully measured, plaintive singing.
Professional Reviews
Q (3/00, p.122) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...the first and best attempt by a contemporary artist to update...The Great American Songbook....not merely accessible but irresistible..."
Uncut (3/00, p.78) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...STARDUST sounds better than ever..."
Dirty Linen (2-3/00, pp.63,65) - "...an album of classic American songs that just about everybody has heard....Nelson says that these Tin Pan Alley tunes are his all time favorite songs and, it seems that he and the band enjoyed playing them..."
Dirty Linen (2-3/00, pp.63,65) - "...an album of classic American songs that just about everybody has heard....Nelson says that these Tin Pan Alley tunes are his all time favorite songs and, it seems that he and the band enjoyed playing them..."
Q (Magazine) (p.120) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "In 1978 willie Nelson teamed up with producer Booker T Jones to record a whole album of Tin Pan Alley standards....It shouldn't have worked, but it did, giving him one of the biggest-selling albums of his career."
Record Collector (magazine) (pp.92-93) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Nelson invests each song with a relaxed, stately tone that feels loose and jazzy, yet also makes the most out of the melody."
