Swinging on a Star

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For the Bing Crosby compilation volume, see Swinging on a Star (album).
"Swinging on a Star"
Single by Bing Crosby with the Williams Brothers Quartet and John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra
from the album Selections from Going My Way
Released1944
Recorded1944
GenreTraditional pop
Songwriter(s)

"Swinging on a Star" is an American pop standard with music composed by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke.[1] It was introduced by Bing Crosby in the 1944 film Going My Way, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song that year,[1][2] and has been recorded by numerous artists since then. In 2004, it finished at No. 37 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

Origins[]

Songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen was at Crosby's house one evening for dinner, and to discuss a song for the film project Going My Way. During the meal, one of the children began complaining about how he did not want to go to school the next day. The singer turned to his son Gary and said to him, "If you don’t go to school, you might grow up to be a mule." Van Heusen thought this clever rebuke would make a good song for the film.[2] He pictured Crosby, who played a priest, talking to a group of children acting much the same way as his own child had acted that night. Van Heusen took the idea to his partner lyricist Johnny Burke, who approved. They wrote the song.[3]

Composition[]

"The lyrics follow the usual verse-refrain format".[4] The length of the composition is unusual: the refrain is just 8 bars in length, and the verse is 12 bars.[4] Besides the Mule, the other animals listed are the pig and the fish.

In the Coda section, it ends with this stanza:

"And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo / Every day you meet quite a few / So you see, it's all up to you / You could be better than you are / You could be swinging on a star".

Recordings[]

  • The first recording of "Swinging on a Star", with Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra, took place in Los Angeles on February 7, 1944, and was released as Decca Records on Disc No. 18597 paired with "Going My Way". The song topped the USA charts in 1944 and Australian charts in 1945. The Williams Brothers Quartet, including a young Andy Williams, sang backup vocals behind Crosby.[3]
  • Shari Lewis covered the song on her first album (1957)
  • Frank Sinatra covered the song in his album "Sinatra sings Academy Award winning songs (1963)
  • A 1963 recording by Big Dee Irwin and Little Eva reached No. 38 in the Billboard Hot 100 in the US[5] and No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1964.[1]
  • Also in 1964, Richard Anthony sang a French version, "À toi de choisir".[citation needed]

In 1969, Ray Stevens quoted the line of the song with the wrong melody in his novelty hit "Gitarzan" (1969) ("Carrying Moonbeams home in a Jar")

Awards and honors[]

See also[]

  • List of number-one singles of 1944 (U.S.)
  • Out of This World - An American television series that used a version of the song as the theme.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 134. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Gilliland, John (1994). Pop Chronicles the 40s: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s (audiobook). ISBN 978-1-55935-147-8. OCLC 31611854. Tape 2, side A.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b A Bing Crosby Discography, Part 1b: Commercial Recordings - The Decca Years
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Owens, Thomas (1996). Bebop: The Music and Its Players. Oxford University Press. p. 207. ISBN 978-0-19-510651-0.
  5. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2009). Top Pop Singles, 12th Edition. Record Research.

External links[]

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