WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.720 So I want you to imagine turning on the radio 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:07.780 today, right? OK. And the top five songs on the 00:00:07.780 --> 00:00:09.519 Billboard chart are all the exact same song. 00:00:09.779 --> 00:00:12.099 The exact same song. Yeah, the exact same track. 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:15.060 Not covers released decades apart, but the exact 00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:18.059 same song released by five different rival pop 00:00:18.059 --> 00:00:20.820 stars, all in the exact same month. And they're 00:00:20.820 --> 00:00:23.079 all fiercely competing for the number one spot. 00:00:23.420 --> 00:00:27.480 I mean, today, that would result in a billion 00:00:27.480 --> 00:00:29.500 dollar copyright lawsuit before lunch. Right. 00:00:29.620 --> 00:00:32.020 It would be absolute chaos for streaming platforms 00:00:32.020 --> 00:00:34.060 and record labels. But the crazy thing is, in 00:00:34.060 --> 00:00:36.640 1939, that was just, you know, another Tuesday 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:39.399 in the music business. Really was. And well, 00:00:39.500 --> 00:00:42.859 welcome to the deep dive. Today, we have a very 00:00:42.859 --> 00:00:45.759 specific mission. We are taking a stack of notes 00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:47.960 which are anchored by this really fascinating 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:50.020 Wikipedia article. And we're going to explore 00:00:50.020 --> 00:00:52.740 the bizarre, shape -shifting life cycle of a 00:00:52.740 --> 00:00:54.960 single musical masterpiece. It's quite a journey. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:58.060 It is. The song is called Stairway to the Stars. 00:00:58.619 --> 00:01:01.399 And for you listening, we're going to trace how 00:01:01.399 --> 00:01:03.899 this one piece of music travels through time, 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:06.739 constantly changing its clothes, surviving these 00:01:06.739 --> 00:01:10.200 massive seismic shifts in pop culture, and somehow 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.879 capturing the imaginations of completely different 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:16.000 generations of musicians. It really is a remarkable 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:19.540 journey. And to really understand how a song 00:01:19.540 --> 00:01:23.040 becomes this legendary pop and jazz standard, 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:25.239 We have to start at a point where it didn't even 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:27.920 have its famous title. Wait, really? Yeah. The 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.099 origin story of Stairway to the Stars does not 00:01:30.099 --> 00:01:33.060 begin with a glamorous singer standing at a microphone. 00:01:33.140 --> 00:01:35.900 It begins as a purely instrumental piece. We're 00:01:35.900 --> 00:01:38.829 talking way back. Right. The year is 1934. two 00:01:38.829 --> 00:01:40.930 composers, Matty Melnick and Frank Signorelli, 00:01:41.049 --> 00:01:42.969 they write an instrumental called Park Avenue 00:01:42.969 --> 00:01:46.150 Fantasy. And there are no lyrics. There are no 00:01:46.150 --> 00:01:48.670 vocalists. It is literally just a melody. And 00:01:48.670 --> 00:01:50.609 it just, you know, it sits out there in the world 00:01:50.609 --> 00:01:53.390 for five years as this standalone piece of music. 00:01:53.430 --> 00:01:56.730 Yeah, five years. Exactly. And then finally, 00:01:56.930 --> 00:01:59.870 in 1939, a lyricist named Mitchell Parish comes 00:01:59.870 --> 00:02:02.709 along. He writes words to that underlying theme. 00:02:03.310 --> 00:02:05.450 Robin's music corp releases it. And suddenly, 00:02:05.909 --> 00:02:08.610 the standard stairway to the stars is officially 00:02:08.610 --> 00:02:10.870 born. But wait, I have to stop you right there. 00:02:11.210 --> 00:02:13.330 You're saying a purely instrumental track from 00:02:13.330 --> 00:02:17.009 1934 sat around for five whole years doing basically 00:02:17.009 --> 00:02:19.469 nothing. And then one guy adds words and it's 00:02:19.469 --> 00:02:21.349 suddenly the biggest song in America. That's 00:02:21.349 --> 00:02:23.939 the timeline, yeah. Was the original melody just 00:02:23.939 --> 00:02:26.360 lacking something, or did Mitchell Parish just 00:02:26.360 --> 00:02:28.580 possess some kind of lyrical magic? Well, it 00:02:28.580 --> 00:02:30.699 wasn't that the melody was lacking at all. In 00:02:30.699 --> 00:02:33.439 fact, that five -year gap is crucial to understanding 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:36.460 the song's DNA. The melody had to be structurally 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:39.120 robust enough to stand entirely on its own, you 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:40.680 know, without any words to tell the listener 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:42.120 how they were supposed to feel about it. So it 00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:44.319 was already fully formed? Yes, it was already 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:46.879 a complete sophisticated thought by the time 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:49.259 Mitchell Parish got his hands on it. What Parish 00:02:49.259 --> 00:02:52.960 did wasn't fixing a broken song. He basically 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:56.039 translated a complex instrumental mood into a 00:02:56.039 --> 00:02:59.300 relatable human sentiment. OK, let's unpack this. 00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:02.099 Because for you listening, if you want a modern 00:03:02.099 --> 00:03:05.500 equivalent of how wild this transition is, think 00:03:05.500 --> 00:03:08.319 about modern music collection. Right. Imagine 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:12.099 Park Avenue Fantasy is this incredible atmospheric 00:03:12.099 --> 00:03:15.800 EDM beat, or like a heavy instrumental hip hop 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:18.460 track. It's cool, people in the underground scene 00:03:18.460 --> 00:03:20.979 vibe to it. It has this distinct mood. But it's 00:03:20.979 --> 00:03:24.099 not a hit. Exactly. It's not a radio hit. Then, 00:03:24.460 --> 00:03:26.960 Mitchell Parish acts like the superstar modern 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:29.460 producer who walks into the studio, hears that 00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:31.439 beat, and says, hold on, I've got the perfect 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:33.319 vocal top line for this. Yeah, that's a perfect 00:03:33.319 --> 00:03:35.439 way to put it. He drops these killer lyrics over 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:38.360 the existing track, and suddenly, what was just 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:42.039 a cool niche instrumental transforms into a massive, 00:03:42.340 --> 00:03:45.120 undeniable mainstream pop hit. That is a highly 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:47.560 accurate way to look at it, actually. He unlocked 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:49.560 a totally different commercial potential for 00:03:49.560 --> 00:03:51.599 the foundation that Malnick and Signorelli had 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:54.099 built. He gave the public a way to sing along 00:03:54.099 --> 00:03:56.340 to what was previously just, you know, a beautiful 00:03:56.340 --> 00:03:58.840 piece of architecture. And when we say commercial 00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:01.960 potential, we are not exaggerating. That lyrical 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:05.439 edition in 1939 wasn't just a hit. It was an 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:07.719 absolute cultural explosion. Oh, absolutely. 00:04:07.879 --> 00:04:10.620 The sheer dominance of this track... in that 00:04:10.620 --> 00:04:13.319 specific year is almost hard to wrap your head 00:04:13.319 --> 00:04:15.599 around. If we look at the timeline in our sources, 00:04:15.780 --> 00:04:18.920 May of 1939 is when things really catch fire. 00:04:19.459 --> 00:04:22.019 Glenn Miller and his orchestra, featuring vocals 00:04:22.019 --> 00:04:25.040 by a singer named Ray Eberly, they released their 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:27.740 recording on the RCA Bluebird label, and it climbs 00:04:27.740 --> 00:04:29.959 all the way to number one on the Your Hip Parade 00:04:29.959 --> 00:04:32.279 chart. Number one in May. Right. But the song 00:04:32.279 --> 00:04:35.759 does not stop there. By June, so the very next 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:38.000 month, Ella Fitzgerald and her famous orchestra 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:39.980 released their own recording of it. Right, the 00:04:39.980 --> 00:04:42.600 very next month. Then we hit July, and the Inc. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:45.100 sponsored doing it on an NBC radio broadcast. 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:48.600 And in that exact same year, 1939, you have hit 00:04:48.600 --> 00:04:51.480 recordings of the exact same song by Jimmy Dorsey, 00:04:51.740 --> 00:04:54.100 by Kay Kaiser with vocals by Harry Babbitt, and 00:04:54.100 --> 00:04:56.540 by Al Donahue with vocals by Paula Kelly. It's 00:04:56.540 --> 00:04:58.120 everywhere. Oh, wait, looking at these notes, 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:00.839 um... I have to interrupt. Glenn Miller's singer 00:05:00.839 --> 00:05:03.500 is Ray Eberly with an L -E at the end. But Jimmy 00:05:03.500 --> 00:05:06.540 Dorsey's rival version from that exact same year 00:05:06.540 --> 00:05:09.319 features a vocalist named Bob Eberly with an 00:05:09.319 --> 00:05:13.339 L -Y. Yes, he does. Is that a typo in our source 00:05:13.339 --> 00:05:16.120 material or were two guys with essentially the 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:18.399 exact same name battling it out on the charts 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:21.180 with the exact same song? It is not a typo and 00:05:21.180 --> 00:05:23.500 it's actually this brilliant piece of historical 00:05:23.500 --> 00:05:27.019 trivia. They were brothers. Got up, really? Really. 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:30.519 Bob Eberly and Ray Eberly were siblings singing 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:33.480 for rival heavyweights, Bob for Jimmy Dorsey, 00:05:33.779 --> 00:05:36.680 and Ray for Glenn Miller. And because Glenn Miller's 00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:39.220 version hit number one, Ray effectively beat 00:05:39.220 --> 00:05:41.180 his own brother on the charts with the exact 00:05:41.180 --> 00:05:42.920 same song. Oh my gosh, that must have made it 00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:44.680 for an incredibly tense Thanksgiving dinner. 00:05:44.839 --> 00:05:48.000 I can only imagine. But familial rivalries aside, 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:50.339 how does an industry even function like that? 00:05:50.459 --> 00:05:52.540 Yeah. Today, we're so used to the idea that a 00:05:52.540 --> 00:05:55.240 song belongs to a specific artist. The competition 00:05:55.240 --> 00:05:57.660 isn't supposed to be about who can sing the exact 00:05:57.660 --> 00:05:59.939 same track better in the exact same month. What's 00:05:59.939 --> 00:06:02.480 fascinating here is what the simultaneous recording 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:05.120 frenzy tells us about the music industry's model 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:09.069 during that era. In 1939, a hit didn't belong 00:06:09.069 --> 00:06:11.569 to just one artist. It belonged to the culture. 00:06:11.750 --> 00:06:14.389 The culture owned it. Exactly. The song itself, 00:06:14.569 --> 00:06:16.769 like the actual sheet music, was the product. 00:06:17.470 --> 00:06:20.550 The moment a song proved it had heat like Stairway 00:06:20.550 --> 00:06:23.170 to the Stars did when Glenn Miller took it to 00:06:23.170 --> 00:06:26.800 number one. every single bandleader raced to 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.139 get their own unique spin out to the public. 00:06:29.339 --> 00:06:31.240 They were all just capitalizing on the melody. 00:06:31.379 --> 00:06:33.300 Right. The competition wasn't about who wrote 00:06:33.300 --> 00:06:35.819 the best song. It was about whose orchestra could 00:06:35.819 --> 00:06:38.439 capture the public's imagination the best using 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:41.019 the exact same raw material. It's fascinating. 00:06:41.980 --> 00:06:44.680 But, you know, lots of songs conquered a specific 00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:47.920 year like 1939 and then faded into total obscurity. 00:06:48.540 --> 00:06:51.160 Tastes change. They do. The real story of Stairway 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:53.459 to the Stars isn't just that it was a hit. It's 00:06:53.459 --> 00:06:55.540 how it survives the end of the swing and big 00:06:55.540 --> 00:06:57.759 band era. Because the music industry was about 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:00.720 to go through a massive, massive upheaval. Precisely. 00:07:01.139 --> 00:07:04.279 As we move from the late 1930s into the mid -century, 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:07.709 the musical landscape shifts dramatically. You 00:07:07.709 --> 00:07:10.470 have the World War II recording bands. The economics 00:07:10.470 --> 00:07:13.589 of touring with massive 20 -piece dance hall 00:07:13.589 --> 00:07:16.449 orchestras just becomes unsustainable, and the 00:07:16.449 --> 00:07:18.370 swing era starts to die out. So what happens 00:07:18.370 --> 00:07:21.269 to the musicians? Well, musicians are pushed 00:07:21.269 --> 00:07:25.529 into smaller, more complex bebop ensembles. Thousands 00:07:25.529 --> 00:07:28.829 of big band pop hits from the 1930s were completely 00:07:28.829 --> 00:07:30.889 forgotten because they were either too simple 00:07:30.889 --> 00:07:33.470 or too rigidly tied to that dance hall style 00:07:33.470 --> 00:07:35.850 to survive the transition. But not Stairway to 00:07:35.850 --> 00:07:37.829 the Stars. It doesn't get left behind. It actually 00:07:37.829 --> 00:07:40.529 evolves into a deeply respected vehicle for serious 00:07:40.529 --> 00:07:43.310 jazz improvisation. Looking at the timeline here, 00:07:43.550 --> 00:07:46.410 we see this bridge in 1947, where you have recordings 00:07:46.410 --> 00:07:48.970 by the legendary vocalist Dinah Washington with 00:07:48.970 --> 00:07:51.629 Chubby Jackson's orchestra, and another by pianist 00:07:51.629 --> 00:07:53.629 Carmen Caballero. Setting the stage for what's 00:07:53.629 --> 00:07:55.750 next. Right. And then we plunge into the 1950s 00:07:55.750 --> 00:07:58.009 and 60s. And the list of people tackling this 00:07:58.009 --> 00:08:00.310 song reads like a Mount Rushmore of jazz heavyweights. 00:08:00.449 --> 00:08:03.089 The roster is honestly staggering. In the 1950s 00:08:03.089 --> 00:08:05.189 alone, you have the Buddy DeFranco quartet in 00:08:05.189 --> 00:08:10.189 1953. Yeah. You have the brilliant, complex pianist 00:08:10.189 --> 00:08:13.300 Bud Powell. offering his interpretation in 56, 00:08:13.699 --> 00:08:16.680 Lee Connett's in 57. And that same year, the 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:19.920 vocal titan Sarah Vaughn records it for her landmark 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:22.899 live album at Mr. Kelly's. And the momentum just 00:08:22.899 --> 00:08:25.740 keeps building into the 1960s. Ella Fitzgerald 00:08:25.740 --> 00:08:28.759 returns to the track in 1960 for her album, Hello, 00:08:28.839 --> 00:08:31.959 Love. Johnny Mathis records it in 61. It just 00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:35.139 doesn't stop. In 1962, you have Milt Jackson 00:08:35.139 --> 00:08:37.679 and Wes Montgomery putting it on Bags Meets Wes. 00:08:38.340 --> 00:08:40.840 Stan Kenton puts it on Adventures in Jazz, and 00:08:40.840 --> 00:08:42.960 the legendary pianist Bill Evans includes it 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:45.059 on Moon Deems. Some of the greatest albums of 00:08:45.059 --> 00:08:46.960 the era. Then you have Dexter Gordon doing it 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:50.220 on Our Man in Paris in 1963, the incredibly smooth 00:08:50.220 --> 00:08:52.919 Johnny Hartman in 64, and Benny Goodman returning 00:08:52.919 --> 00:08:55.480 to it in 67. It's incredible. But I have to push 00:08:55.480 --> 00:08:57.159 back here. For you, the listener, I don't want 00:08:57.159 --> 00:08:59.129 us to just read a table of contents. I want to 00:08:59.129 --> 00:09:01.009 know how they did this. OK, fair enough. How 00:09:01.009 --> 00:09:04.129 does a bright, peppy, 1939 dancehall track by 00:09:04.129 --> 00:09:06.529 Glenn Miller turn into a serious piece of art 00:09:06.529 --> 00:09:08.330 for someone like Bill Evans or Dexter Gordon? 00:09:08.669 --> 00:09:10.590 What are they actually doing to the music? If 00:09:10.590 --> 00:09:12.990 we connect this to the bigger picture, that is 00:09:12.990 --> 00:09:15.649 the perfect question, because the genius lies 00:09:15.649 --> 00:09:18.309 in the mechanics of the song itself. A standard 00:09:18.309 --> 00:09:21.110 only survives if it has a strong harmonic foundation. 00:09:21.450 --> 00:09:24.620 Right. To put it in accessible terms, Stairway 00:09:24.620 --> 00:09:28.179 to the Stars features this incredible chromatic 00:09:28.179 --> 00:09:30.759 descending bass line, meaning the underlying 00:09:30.759 --> 00:09:33.159 chords step down half note at a time in certain 00:09:33.159 --> 00:09:35.440 sections. OK, I can picture that. Right. To a 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:38.320 pop singer in 1939, that just sounds romantic 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:41.620 and swooning. But to a jazz musician in 1962, 00:09:41.940 --> 00:09:44.279 that descending bass line acts like a playground. 00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:46.740 Oh, interesting. It is an open invitation to 00:09:46.740 --> 00:09:49.379 substitute more complex chords, to twist the 00:09:49.379 --> 00:09:51.399 harmony, and to completely change the emotion. 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:53.840 weight of the song. So when Bill Evans gets his 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:56.940 hands on it in 62, he isn't just playing the 00:09:56.940 --> 00:09:59.279 Glenn Miller melody with fewer instruments. Not 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:02.519 at all. Evans takes that 1930s swing foundation 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:06.340 and adds these dense, melancholic, closely clustered 00:10:06.340 --> 00:10:09.279 piano voicings. He slows the tempo way down. 00:10:09.460 --> 00:10:12.480 He makes it introspective. He finds sadness and 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:14.600 longing in a chord progression that was originally 00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:16.840 designed to make people dance. Here's where it 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:19.220 gets really interesting, because for you listening... 00:10:19.289 --> 00:10:22.590 I want you to imagine this song as a piece of 00:10:22.590 --> 00:10:25.570 open source software. Oh, I like that. Right. 00:10:25.570 --> 00:10:28.049 Matty Malneck and Frank Sinirelli wrote the bass 00:10:28.049 --> 00:10:31.169 operating system. The melody is the user interface. 00:10:31.269 --> 00:10:33.590 It's catchy. It's easy to interact with. But 00:10:33.590 --> 00:10:36.210 the chords beneath it, that descending bass line 00:10:36.210 --> 00:10:38.850 you mentioned, that is the backend code. Yes. 00:10:38.970 --> 00:10:41.750 And it is so impeccably written that any developer, 00:10:41.909 --> 00:10:45.129 or in this case, any musician, can come in, tweak 00:10:45.129 --> 00:10:47.669 the code, and build an entirely new application 00:10:47.669 --> 00:10:50.259 on top of it without crashing the system. I love 00:10:50.259 --> 00:10:51.980 that analogy, because when you compare those 00:10:51.980 --> 00:10:53.519 different versions, you really hear entirely 00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:55.480 different applications being run. Take Dexter 00:10:55.480 --> 00:10:58.259 Gordon's version on Our Man in Paris in 1963. 00:10:58.940 --> 00:11:01.580 Gordon is a tenor saxophonist steeped in bebop. 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:04.460 He isn't playing a sweet, sentimental dance tune. 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:07.639 He's playing in a smoky Parisian jazz club, pushing 00:11:07.639 --> 00:11:10.279 the tempo, playing behind the beat, and exploring 00:11:10.279 --> 00:11:12.820 the gritty, bluesy corners of that exact same 00:11:12.820 --> 00:11:15.039 harmonic structure. And then you contrast that 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:16.840 with what the vocalists were doing. Like you 00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:20.360 have Johnny Hartman in Oh, Hartman is legendary. 00:11:20.759 --> 00:11:23.440 Right. Hartman possessed this rich, impossibly 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:26.620 smooth, baritone voice. When he sings the lyrics 00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:29.039 Mitchell Parish wrote, he isn't using it as an 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:32.000 upbeat pop hook. He's delivering it as this intimate, 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:35.600 late -night romantic confession. Same ink, completely 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:38.179 different novels. Exactly. How incredibly elastic 00:11:38.179 --> 00:11:40.220 does a melody have to be to stretch across that 00:11:40.220 --> 00:11:42.899 many different stylistic interpretations? From 00:11:42.899 --> 00:11:45.460 West Montgomery's vibraphone and guitar textures 00:11:45.460 --> 00:11:49.570 to... Bud Powell's cerebral piano without snapping. 00:11:50.090 --> 00:11:52.730 It requires a rare combination of simplicity 00:11:52.730 --> 00:11:55.250 and depth and that elasticity, the fact that 00:11:55.250 --> 00:11:58.149 the song could be pulled into these smoky avant 00:11:58.149 --> 00:12:01.490 -garde jazz clubs while still retaining its beautiful 00:12:01.490 --> 00:12:04.370 melodic core is exactly what caught the ear of 00:12:04.370 --> 00:12:07.090 Hollywood directors. Oh right, the movies. Because 00:12:07.090 --> 00:12:09.309 while the song is busy being deconstructed by 00:12:09.309 --> 00:12:11.789 jazz giants, it is also living a completely parallel 00:12:11.789 --> 00:12:13.950 life on the silver screen. Right. The directors 00:12:13.950 --> 00:12:16.210 needed something with enough gravitas for a cinematic 00:12:16.210 --> 00:12:18.250 moment, but enough pop sensibility to actually 00:12:18.250 --> 00:12:20.330 connect with moviegoers. Yes. Enter the year 00:12:20.330 --> 00:12:23.889 1959. Stairway to the Stars is used as a major 00:12:23.889 --> 00:12:26.470 theme in the iconic motion picture. Some like 00:12:26.470 --> 00:12:30.200 it on. Which is an absolute milestone. Some Like 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:32.379 It Hot is widely considered one of the greatest 00:12:32.379 --> 00:12:35.399 comedies ever made. Placing the song so prominently 00:12:35.399 --> 00:12:38.500 in a major Hollywood blockbuster cements it in 00:12:38.500 --> 00:12:40.519 the pop culture consciousness in a way that goes 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:44.240 far beyond just record sales or jazz club credibility. 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:47.159 It exposes the melody to millions of people who 00:12:47.159 --> 00:12:49.320 might never have bought a Bill Evans record or 00:12:49.320 --> 00:12:52.220 remembered the 1939 Glenn Miller hit. Exactly. 00:12:52.379 --> 00:12:54.419 And that Hollywood placement ensures its survival 00:12:54.419 --> 00:12:57.100 for decades to come. The timeline in our sources 00:12:57.100 --> 00:12:59.279 stretches right through the modern era. You have 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:01.519 Natalie Cole recording it on her album Don't 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:03.720 Look Back in 1980. A great version. You have 00:13:03.720 --> 00:13:06.620 The Velvet Fog himself, Mel Tormé, including 00:13:06.620 --> 00:13:10.059 it on an evening with Mel Tormé in 1994, all 00:13:10.059 --> 00:13:12.360 the way up to the 21st century. with the acclaimed 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:15.320 British jazz vocalist Ian Shaw recording it for 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:18.139 the Abbey Road Sessions in 2011. This raises 00:13:18.139 --> 00:13:20.299 an important question about the duality of the 00:13:20.299 --> 00:13:22.980 song itself. How many pieces of music can exist 00:13:22.980 --> 00:13:25.659 as a mainstream Hollywood movie theme for a major 00:13:25.659 --> 00:13:28.960 blockbuster in 1959, while simultaneously being 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:31.720 torn apart and reimagined by avant -garde bebop 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:34.960 musicians in the exact same era? Not many, that's 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:37.860 for sure. It is an incredibly rare piece of art 00:13:37.860 --> 00:13:40.639 that perfectly bridges the gap between high art 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:43.879 exploration and popular mass market entertainment. 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:47.120 So what does this all mean for the artists who 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:49.220 actually have to perform it today? That's the 00:13:49.220 --> 00:13:51.679 big question. If you put yourself in the shoes 00:13:51.679 --> 00:13:55.379 of a modern vocalist, say, you are Ian Shaw walking 00:13:55.379 --> 00:13:58.440 into the legendary Abbey Road Studios in 2011. 00:13:59.059 --> 00:14:01.539 You look at the sheet music on the stand. You 00:14:01.539 --> 00:14:04.240 know the sheer crushing weight of the history 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:06.379 behind this song. That's heavy. You know that 00:14:06.379 --> 00:14:08.659 by choosing to sing these lyrics, you were stepping 00:14:08.659 --> 00:14:10.960 up to the exact same microphone, metaphorically 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:14.120 speaking, as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:16.360 Johnny Hartman. You were singing over the same 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:18.980 chords that Bud Powell and Bill Evans spent years 00:14:18.980 --> 00:14:21.759 exploring. How do you even approach recording 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:23.879 it without being completely paralyzed by the 00:14:23.879 --> 00:14:25.960 legacy? I feel like I would just fold up the 00:14:25.960 --> 00:14:28.100 sheet music and go home. That is the ultimate 00:14:28.100 --> 00:14:30.779 challenge of performing a standard. It's an intimidating 00:14:30.779 --> 00:14:33.460 tightrope walk. As an artist, you have to balance 00:14:33.460 --> 00:14:36.440 your reverence for the history with the courage 00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:39.080 to bring your own distinct voice to it. You have 00:14:39.080 --> 00:14:41.279 to understand what Dexter Gordon did, but you 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:44.000 can't just mimic Dexter Gordon. You have to believe 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:46.340 that the foundation is strong enough and elastic 00:14:46.340 --> 00:14:48.840 enough to support one more house being built 00:14:48.840 --> 00:14:51.940 on top of it. And clearly, for nearly a century, 00:14:52.340 --> 00:14:54.399 artists have found that courage because the song 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:57.039 just invites them in. It really is a master class 00:14:57.039 --> 00:15:00.720 in the power of reinvention. Let's look back 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:02.559 at the incredible journey we've mapped out for 00:15:02.559 --> 00:15:05.000 you today. It's a lot of ground. It really is. 00:15:05.149 --> 00:15:09.389 We started in 1934 with a pure standalone instrumental 00:15:09.389 --> 00:15:12.440 called Park Avenue Fantasy. We explored the five 00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:14.740 -year incubation period and then watched it get 00:15:14.740 --> 00:15:17.799 a lyrical top line and absolutely explode into 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:21.019 a vocal phenomenon in 1939. We saw it dominate 00:15:21.019 --> 00:15:23.860 the charts and spark literal sibling rivalries 00:15:23.860 --> 00:15:25.500 among the biggest band leaders in the world. 00:15:25.799 --> 00:15:28.039 And then we explored how it survived the death 00:15:28.039 --> 00:15:30.580 of the swing era and the musician's strikes of 00:15:30.580 --> 00:15:34.019 the 1940s. We unpacked how its unique chromatic 00:15:34.019 --> 00:15:36.480 baseline allowed it to become this defining open 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:38.820 -source canvas for the mid -century jazz giants, 00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:41.539 transitioning from a dance tune into a vehicle 00:15:41.539 --> 00:15:44.279 for serious introspective art. And we watched 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:48.539 it grace the silver screen in a 1959 cinematic 00:15:48.539 --> 00:15:51.820 masterpiece, living a parallel life as a Hollywood 00:15:51.820 --> 00:15:54.840 theme before following its endurance all the 00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:57.100 way into the recording studios of the 21st century. 00:15:57.450 --> 00:15:59.990 And the takeaway for you, the listener, goes 00:15:59.990 --> 00:16:02.610 far beyond just music history. Understanding 00:16:02.610 --> 00:16:05.450 the lineage of Stairway to the Stars is a lesson 00:16:05.450 --> 00:16:08.090 in how true brilliance isn't just about the original 00:16:08.090 --> 00:16:10.889 moment of creation. Definitely. It's about structural 00:16:10.889 --> 00:16:14.029 integrity. A lasting legacy is about building 00:16:14.029 --> 00:16:17.090 a foundation that is so inherently strong, so 00:16:17.090 --> 00:16:19.690 perfectly balanced, and yet so wonderfully blank, 00:16:20.049 --> 00:16:21.909 that other people can project their own emotions 00:16:21.909 --> 00:16:24.009 onto it and continue building their own houses 00:16:24.009 --> 00:16:26.929 on it for a century. Exactly. It's not a rigid 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:29.879 skyscraper locked in steel and concrete. It's 00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:32.759 a living, breathing framework that constantly 00:16:32.759 --> 00:16:35.940 invites new architects to dream. Which leaves 00:16:35.940 --> 00:16:37.799 us with a final thought for you to ponder as 00:16:37.799 --> 00:16:39.820 we wrap up this deep dive. Let's hear it. If 00:16:39.820 --> 00:16:41.700 Matty Malinak and Frank Signorelli were to sit 00:16:41.700 --> 00:16:44.080 down and write Park Avenue Fantasy today in the 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.919 year 2026, what genre would it be? Oh, that's 00:16:46.919 --> 00:16:48.940 a great question. Right. Would it be an ambient 00:16:48.940 --> 00:16:52.409 electronic track? A heavy trap beat. And who 00:16:52.409 --> 00:16:54.090 would be the modern -day equivalent of Mitchell 00:16:54.090 --> 00:16:56.970 Parish and Glenn Miller to step in, add the vocal 00:16:56.970 --> 00:16:58.929 hook, record the track, and make it immortal? 00:16:59.570 --> 00:17:00.730 The next time you turn on the radio and hear 00:17:00.730 --> 00:17:03.830 a massive chart -topping remix, ask yourself, 00:17:03.990 --> 00:17:07.069 is the back -end code underneath that beats strong 00:17:07.069 --> 00:17:09.150 enough that artists will still be finding new 00:17:09.150 --> 00:17:11.549 heartbreaking ways to play it 80 years from now?