Willie Nelson’s ‘Stardust’ Album Was a Risky Career Move

Willie Nelson has been a staple in the music industry for decades. The country music star rose to fame as an outlaw country music star who prided himself on his country roots. So when he recorded his pop album Stardust, it was a marked departure from those country roots.

Willie Nelson used to live above Booker T. Jones

Willie Nelson built his reputation as a singer in Nashville in the 1960s and early 1970s. He often sang at the Grand Ole Opry, where he met one of his longtime friends, fellow singer Waylon Jennings.

In the late 1970s, Nelson was spending time in California when he crossed paths with another prominent musician: Booker T. Jones of Booker T. and the M.G.’s. Jones reflected on the time in the 2021 Netflix docuseries This Is Pop.

“I had rented an apartment on the beach in Malibu and had just moved in,” he recalled. “I saw a guy running down the beach who, to me, looked like Willie Nelson. He looked up at me and waved and I said, ‘Oh my God, that is Willie Nelson!'”

“It turns out that he had rented the apartment underneath me,” he continued. “So we ended up jamming at night, just the two of us, on our decks, on different songs we played as boys. ‘Stardust’ [by Hoagy Carmichael] and ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’ [by Jimmy McHugh] [and] ‘Blue Skies’ [by Irving Berlin] and Willie suggested, ‘Why don’t we go in the studio and record these songs rather than sitting out here on the deck?'”

Willie Nelson’s ‘Stardust’ album was one of the first of its kind

Nelson recorded his Stardust album — the twenty-second of his career — in late 1977 with Jones producing the project. Nelson turned heads in the music scene because of his decision to release an album of old American popular songs at a time when he was known for his country and rock music.

“Willie had made a nice little reputation for himself there in Nashville with his friends [Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser] and they were The Outlaws, so when we came in with a record that was pop music standards, the concept was just not something that seemed plausible at all,” Jones admitted.

“I think Willie was just leaning towards that word, ‘authenticity,'” he went on. “I think he just didn’t care what the genre was. If it felt good to him, he wanted to do it. But it was just not something that was done in those days in Nashville. It just wasn’t traditional.”

Willie Nelson’s ‘Stardust’ album changed music

Jones initially only produced 500 copies of the album, but ended up having to sell much more due to popular demand. Eight months after its release in 1978, the album was certified platinum with over one million copies sold. It eventually would be certified quintuple platinum a decade later.

At a time when pop music artists were creating country records, Stardust proved that country artists could be pop too.