"Swinging on a Star"

April 1944

February 7, 1944

Traditional pop

Origins[edit]

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[edit]

"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]

The first recording of "Swinging on a Star", with Bing Crosby with 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 US charts in 1944 and Australian charts in 1945. The Williams Brothers Quartet, including a young Andy Williams, sang backup vocals behind Crosby.[3]

John Scott Trotter

A 1963 recording by and Little Eva reached No. 38 in the Billboard Hot 100 in the US[5][6] and No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1964.[1]

Big Dee Irwin

The American Out of This World (1987-1991) used a modified version of "Swinging on a Star" as its theme song.

sitcom

Actors and Danny Aiello perform the song in the 1991 action comedy Hudson Hawk in order to time out a heist their characters pull. They, however, incorrectly cite the length of the song as five minutes, thirty-two seconds as well as sing the verses in the incorrect order.

Bruce Willis

(1944)

Academy Award for Best Original Song

(2002)

Grammy Hall of Fame

List of number-one singles of 1944 (U.S.)