Because of the song's popularity, by 1936, RCA Victor pressed a double-sided version that featured Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman on respective sides.

That year, RCA Victor released two more recordings of "Stardust": one by Dorsey featuring Frank Sinatra as the singer, and one by Artie Shaw.

Artists including Jo Stafford, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Billy Ward and his Dominoes, Ringo Starr, and Willie Nelson have recorded "Stardust".

[7] With the success of Red Nichols' 1927 recording of Carmichael's original "Washboard Blues", the composer decided to leave the practice of law in pursuit of a career in music.

[9] While Carmichael related several explanations of how he was inspired to write it on the University campus, biographer Richard Sudhalter deemed the stories "encrusted in myth, much of it the composer's own creation".

[15] Carmichael played the piano, backed by Emil Seidel and his orchestra: Byron Smart (trumpet), Oscar Rossberg (trombone), Dick Kent and Gene Wood (alto saxophones), Maurice Bennett (tenor saxophone), Don Kimmel (guitar), Paul Brown (tuba), Cliff Williams (drums).

Under the single-word title "Stardust," it was placed on the flipside of "One Night In Havana", assigned the release number 6311, and credited to Hoagy Carmichael and His Pals.

[20][18] Parish wrote the song using Carmichael's account of how he was inspired to compose the melody, while the lyricist developed a story focused in the concept of lost love.

The intriguing opening harmonic progression of the chorus starts on the IV chord for two bars which then changes from major to minor, a method also used by two contemporary songs: "After You’ve Gone" (1918) and "I’ll See You In My Dreams" (1924).

The recording retained Carmichael's original key of D.[18] The song soon circulated among black musicians and jazz interpreters,[25] and it was often performed at the Cotton Club after being introduced in 1929.

[28] While Carmichael worked for RCA Records as a session jazz ensemble leader, journalist Walter Winchell promoted the song.

[33] The same year, Lee Sims also released "Stardust" on Brunswick 6132, a version that the Sydney Morning Herald called "a melody of a considerable intensity and with dramatic outbursts," with a "realistic and very full" piano reproduction.

[40] In 1940, RCA Victor executive Harry Myerson proposed that the label again release a two-sided recording of "Stardust": one side would feature Artie Shaw, the other a new version by Dorsey.

It considered Dorsey's version "emotional", and felt the vocals by Sinatra and the Pied Pipers made the record suitable for "armchair listening".

[43] The Tampa Bay Times welcomed Dorsey's "silky trombone" and the "slow vocal style" of Sinatra and the Pied Pipers.

Of Shaw's version, they stressed his "intricate and dazzling clarinet wizardry", and the "medium slow drag" playing style of the band.

[45] Shaw's recording was arranged by Lennie Hayton, while the clarinetist used his new orchestra composed of: Billy Butterfield (trumpet), Jerry Jerome (tenor saxophone), Johnny Guarnieri (piano), Nick Fatool (drums), and Jack Jenney and Vernon Brown (trombones).

[46] Also in 1940, Glenn Miller recorded his version of the song, which entered Billboard's National Best Selling Chart on October 26, and peaked at number 20.

[47] While it considered the song "beautifully arranged with good sax and trumpet solos", The Boston Globe felt the result is "completely dead and lifeless".

The dispute between the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and radio broadcasters focused on the increase in the price of song royalties.

Saturday Review described Fitzgerald as doing "absorbing things with 'Stardust'",[55] while the Chicago Tribune considered the tune "completely in line with her magnificent singing".

[56] In 1954, when the copyright of 14 of his songs including "Stardust" was due for renewal, Carmichael sued Mills Music to receive total ownership or co-ownership of the compositions.

[64] The same year, Pat Boone released a version on his album Star Dust, which reached number two on Billboard's Best selling LP's chart.

[68] A review in The Rock Island Argus called Sinatra's "Stardust" his "choicest" track on the album and remarked on his "entirely new approach overlooking the perennially favored chorus".

[70] Ringo Starr recorded the song featuring arrangements by Paul McCartney for his 1970 debut solo album, Sentimental Journey.

Daniel Kreps of Rolling Stone considered that "Dylan's approach finds a pleasing, country-tinged arrangement" that the reviewer noted to be "somewhere between" Sinatra and Nelson's version.

For NPR, Susan Stamberg defined it as "an American song of longing, dreams, desires, [that] still stretches across the decades to touch the spirit of anyone who hears it".

[11] In 2004, the Library of Congress inducted Carmichael's "Stardust" into the National Recording Registry,[86] which lists "culturally, historically or aesthetically important" music that "informs or reflects life" in the United States.

[90] In 1938, Orson Welles's radio broadcast The War of the Worlds featured an excerpt of "Stardust" played by the fictional Ramón Raquello Orchestra.

[92] Different versions of the song appeared in films, including Stardust Memories (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Another Man's Poison (1951), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Casino (1995),[93] The Aviator (2004),[94] A Star Is Born (2018),[95] Captive State (2019).,[96] and Carmichael's own short 1942 recording[97] is featured at the start of closing credits in Nightmare Alley (2021).