Swinging On A Star

"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
Released	1944
Format	7-inch, 10-inch
Recorded	1944
Genre	Traditional pop
Writer(s)	Jimmy Van Heusen Johnny Burke

"Swinging on a Star" is an American pop standard with music composed by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke. It was introduced by Bing Crosby in the 1944 film Going My Way, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song that year, and has been recorded by numerous artists since then. In 2004 it finished at #37 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

Songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen was at Crosby’s house one evening for dinner, and to discuss a song for the movie Going My Way. During the meal one of the children began complaining about how he didn’t want to go to school the next day. The singer turned to his son and said to him, "If you don’t go to school, you might grow up to be a mule. Do you wanna do that?" That statement was based on "Pinocchio" when the puppet turned briefly into a donkey. The other two animals mentioned in the other verses, are the pig and the fish. In the Coda, the "Monkeys" (who are in the zoo) are mentioned as well.

Van Heusen thought this clever rebuke would make a good song for the movie. 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.

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 Williams Brothers Quartet, including a young Andy Williams, sang backup vocals behind Crosby.

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Wikipedia