Swinging on a Star

"Swinging on a Star" is an American pop standard that was published in 1944. It was written for Bing Crosby to sing in the 1944 film "Going My Way".

Origin: Songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen was at Crosby's house one evening for dinner 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. 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.