Mitchell Parish achieved fame as one of the most talented and versatile writers of popular song lyrics. His career is singular for four things. First, he wrote the words to "Star Dust" (1929), supposedly the most recorded song in history, the title of which is synonymous with the word standard. Second, he achieved his success without being a show writer; with the exception of an occasional song added to a stage show and several movies near the end of his career, Parish's entire output consists of straight popular songs, or what a theater-minded musicologist would call independent songs. Third, many of his lyrics consist of what can be called adaptations. Many of these adaptations are English lyrics to songs that had already been published in other languages. Many others were lyrics that were newly added to instrumental pieces that already had some popularity in that format ("Star Dust" and...