(Willie Nelson’s Stardust album, which I discovered once again 40 years late, highlights in rather dramatic fashion, the deplorable state of today’s music industry.) From Wikipedia:

“Stardust is the twenty-second studio album by Willie Nelson, released in 1978. Its ten songs consist entirely of pop standards that Nelson picked from among his favorites. Nelson asked Booker T. Jones, who was his neighbor in Malibu at the time, to arrange a version of “Moonlight in Vermont”. Impressed with Jones’s work, Nelson asked him to produce the entire album. Nelson’s decision to record such well-known tracks was controversial among Columbia executives because he had distinguished himself in the outlaw country genre. Recording of the album took only ten days.

Released in April, Stardust was met with high sales and near-universal positive reviews. It peaked at number one in Billboard’s Top Country Albums. The singles “Blue Skies” and “All of Me” peaked respectively at numbers one and three in Billboard’s Hot Country Singles. In 1979, Nelson won a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for the song “Georgia on My Mind”. Stardust was on the Billboard’s Country Album charts for ten years—from its release until 1988.

In 1984, when it was certified triple platinum, Nelson was the highest-grossing concert act in the United States. By 1977, Nelson had decided to record a collection of American pop standards. During that time, Nelson was living in the same neighborhood in Malibu as producer Booker T. Jones. The two became friends, and Nelson asked Jones to arrange “Moonlight in Vermont”. Pleased by the results, Nelson later asked Jones to produce an entire standards album for him. Nelson selected his ten favorite pop songs from his childhood, starting with “Stardust”. Nelson and his sister Bobbie had sheet music for the song that he had tried to perform with his guitar, but did not like that arrangement. Jones adapted the song for Nelson, who also picked for the album “Georgia on My Mind”, “Blue Skies”, “All of Me”, “Unchained Melody”, “September Song”, “On the Sunny Side of the Street”, “Moonlight in Vermont”, “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and “Someone to Watch Over Me”.

The executives of Columbia Records were not convinced that the album would sell well, because the project was a radical departure from his earlier success in the outlaw movement. The album included pop, jazz and folk music styles, in addition to country. It was recorded from December 3–12, 1977.” (Not bad for an album Columbia executives didn’t want to make.)