The song of the day for Saturday, March 2, 2024, is “Lost in the Stars.”

About Today

We’re remembering Kurt Weill, who wrote today’s song, on the anniversary of his birth on March 2, 1900. He had a successful career in his home country of Germany until 1933. Weill, who was Jewish, fled Germany and relocated to the United States. He is best remembered for The Threepenny Opera, but also wrote other shows including Lost in the Stars, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, One Touch of Venus, and Lady in the Dark. Weill won the first Tony Award for his work on Street Scene. He was married to Lotte Lenya (who you might remember in From Russia With Love in the role of Rosa Klebb, where she poisons James Bond with a knife blade, laced with the fugu toxin, hidden in her shoe.

About This Song

“Lost in the Stars” was written by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson for the 1949 musical of the same name, based on the 1948 novel by Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country. Set in South Africa in an era when apartheid seemed as if it would never end, the plot concerns a black priest whose son kills, in a robbery attempt, a white man who is a friend of his father. The priest sings this song at the end of the first act, in a complete crisis of faith.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Lost in the Stars” at his concert at Carnegie Hall on June 9, 1962. The resulting album, Tony Bennett at Carnegie Hall, was released in August 1962. Ralph Sharon arranged all the songs for the concert and let the orchestra as well. The concert, as well as the album, was a triumph. The original album was released on 4 LP records and only included 28 songs. The 1997 2-CD release contained the full concert.

“Lost in the Stars,” as well as Tony Bennett at Carnegie Hall, is available on Apple Music.