"Stella by Starlight" is a popular jazz standard with music by Victor Young and lyrics by Ned Washington, who wrote the words in 1946. Young composed the theme for the main title and soundtrack of the 1944 Paramount Pictures film The Uninvited, in which the character Rick, played by Ray Milland, tells Stella, played by Gail Russell, that he is playing "To Stella by Starlight". The original recording, by Victor Young and His Concert Orchestra with Ray Turner at the piano, was made on 30 August 1945 and released on the single "Love Letters" in November 1945.
Harry James's recording from May 1947 reached No. 21 on the pop charts, and Frank Sinatra, with Axel Stordahl's orchestra, reached the same position two months later. Charlie Parker recorded the first jazz version in January 1952, with strings. Stan Getz (1952), Chet Baker (1954), Nat King Cole (1955) and Miles Davis (1958, revived in 1963) also recorded it, and Al Hirt included it on The Greatest Horn in the World (1961). Vocal versions were recorded by Billy Eckstine, Dick Haymes, Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Anita O'Day.
