"Stars" is the title track on the
sixth studio album of American singer-songwriter
Janis Ian
Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter who was most commercially successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her signature songs are the 1966/67 hit " Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" and the 1975 Top T ...
. The song is a somber guitar ballad about the pitfalls, fleetingness, and consequences of fame.
Nina Simone version
Jazz and blues singer
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, ...
performed a modified version of "Stars" live at the 1976
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...
held in
Montreux
Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. Simone's version was played on the piano, included new lyrics, and had a more somber tone then that of Ian's, fitting the mental and financial struggles the artist was facing in the decline of her career. A recording of Simone's performance was preserved.
Simone released another rendition of "Stars" in her live compilation album ''Let it Be Me'' (1987) and posthumously, the Montreux version, in ''Nina Simone: The Montreux Years'' (2021).
Simone's Montreux cover version was played during the final moments of the season 3 finale of the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
adult cartoon ''
BoJack Horseman
''BoJack Horseman'' is an American adult animation, adult animated Black comedy, black Comedy drama, comedy-drama streaming television series created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. It stars the voices of Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F ...
''. Jen Chaney wrote in ''
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'' magazine that the way the season's finale "unfold
the way it does to Nina Simone’s 'Stars,' is utterly crushing. It’s the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever seen in an animated series."
The song was included in the show's
soundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' ...
.
References
1974 songs
Janis Ian songs
{{1970s-song-stub