Sarah Vaughan - Lost In The Stars (Mercury Records 1956)
"Lost in the Stars" is a musical with book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson and music by Kurt Weill, based on the novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) by Alan Paton. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1949; it was the composer's last work for the stage before he died the following year.
The title song "Lost in the Stars" enjoyed a measure of popular success, and versions of it were recorded by Anita O'Day, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Generation Gap, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner and of course sarah Vaughan and many others. The words, which in the musical are those of the minister Stephen Kumalo at the depth of his desperation, tell how God once "held all the stars in the palm of his hand" "and they ran through his fingers like grains of sand, and one little star fell alone." Kumalo says that God sought and found the little lost star and "stated and promised he'd take special care so it wouldn't get lost again." But at times he thinks that God has forgotten his promise and that "we're lost out here in the stars."
Sarah's accompanied by Hal Mooney & His Studio Orchestra. Recorded in New York, November 1, 1956. (Mercury Records)
Before Lord God made the sea or the land
He held all the stars in the palm of his hand
And they ran through his fingers like grains of sand
And one little star fell alone
Then the Lord God hunted through the wide night air
For the little dark star on the wind down there
And he stated his promised he'll takes special care
So it wouldn't get lost no more
Now a man don't mind if the stars get dim
And the clouds blow over and darkens him
So long as the Lord God's watching over them
Keeping track, how it all goes on
But I've been walking through the night and the day
Till my eyes get weary and my head turns gray
And sometimes it seems maybe God's gone away
Forgetting his promise and the word he'd say
And we're lost out here in the stars
Little stars, big stars, blowing through the night
And we're lost out here in the stars
Little stars, big stars, blowing through the night
And we're lost out here in the stars
