Lyr Req: Would You Like to Swing on a Star?

Subject: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From:
Date: 23 Apr 99 - 11:00 PM

Does anyone on this thread know the lyrics to this song? I am teaching a class and would like to use them as an aid. Thank you.

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Apr 99 - 11:13 PM

My sister, bet, should have the sheet music. I'll ask her, or she'll see this thread. You could also check in the links at the Lester Levy collection. I am sure it is there.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: Tucker
Date: 23 Apr 99 - 11:21 PM

I think I remember this from "your Hit Parade"

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Apr 99 - 11:28 PM

Lester Levy Collection, in the Links, it is Call No. Box 191a Item 112.

TuckMudder: it was from the old Bing Crosby movie, "Going My Way". My mom and dad had the original sheet music.

kat

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From:
Date: 23 Apr 99 - 11:54 PM

Thanks for the info. I found the Lester Levy Collection and the data on the song. However, I don't know how to access the complete lyrics. Can you please direct me. I apologize for my lack of understanding.

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: Tucker
Date: 23 Apr 99 - 11:55 PM

Thank You Kat Darlin", I knew it dwelt in my past somewhere. Do you remember when Kate Smith sang " When the sun comes over the mountain" on early TV??? Showing my age I guess. At the same time I thought everyone I saw on the screen were wee folks that lived inside

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: SeanM
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 12:40 AM

This one was also used in a Bruce Willis movie, 'Hudson Hawk', a flick destined to go down in history as one of his oddest endeavors. It's something of a cult hit. Bruce and his partner (Danny Aielo(sp?), I believe) use the song to keep time with each other during jewel heists...

Strange but true...

M

Subject: Lyr Add: SWINGING ON A STAR
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 03:46 AM

AQSue, now I feel really dumb! I went to the Levy collection, tried ebverything I could to get the lyrics, then read the fine print that whole pages would only come up if published before 1924 and in the public domain. Sheesh! Never read that before and this song came out in 1944! Duh!

Anyway, then I went to Yahoo, typed in the name, hit search and viola! the first that came up! Here ya' go:

Would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a mule?

A mule is an animal with long funny ears
Kicks up at anything he hears
His back is brawny but his brain is weak
He's just plain stupid with a stubborn streak
And by the way, if you hate to go to school
You may grow up to be a mule

Or would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a pig?

A pig is an animal with dirt on his face
His shoes are a terrible disgrace
He has no manners when he eats his food
He's fat and lazy and extremely rude
But if you don't care a feather or a fig
You may grow up to be a pig

Or would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a fish?

A fish won't do anything, but swim in a brook
He can't write his name or read a book
To fool the people is his only thought
And though he's slippery, he still gets caught
But then if that sort of life is what you wish
You may grow up to be a fish
A new kind of jumped-up slippery fish

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 can be better than you are
You could be swingin' on a star

Line Breaks
added. Kat is supposed to know how to do this by now... (grin)
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From:
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 06:51 AM

Thank you Kat. I searched a zillion places and never found it. You're obviously far more computer-literate...or a heckava lot more lucky. Either way I thank you. Now, for all of those music buffs. My staff remembered the mule, the pig and the fish....but, most remembered there being a goat as well. Anyone else have this recollection?

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: Banjer
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 07:00 AM

Are you sure that the staff is not confusing this with the song "High Hopes" sung by Frank Sinatra in one of his movies. It dealt with a goat and kicking in a dam...or am I getting my past mixed up?

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From:
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 07:13 AM

I think you are mistaken. There is a Frank Sinatra song called High Hopes, but the Bing Crosby's Would You Like to Swing on a Star is a lovely tune and song. Thanks for the reminder, people.

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 03:07 PM

"High Hopes" was a little more recent, 1959, with music by James Van Heusen and words by Sammy Cahn. It was introduced in the non-musical motion picture A Hole in the Head by Frank Sinatra and Eddie Hodges. The song received the Academy Award. It was written as a last-minute decision, because of the sudden need for a song in an emotional scene in an otherwise non-musical motion picture. The song was used to promote John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1960.

"Swinging on a Star" was published in 1944, with words by Johnny Burke and music by James Van Heusen (so there is a connection). It was introduced by Bing Crosby and a boys' chorus in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way. Both the song and the movie received the Academy Award.
Johnny Burke and Van Heusen were dining at Bing Crosby's when one of Bing's sons misbehaved. Bing scolded him for acting like a mule. Burke, who had been worrying about a song for one of the scenes in Going My Way, found in this incident a suitable song subject: about somebody, stubborn as a mule, refusing to better himself. The next day, Burke and Van Heusen wrote their song.

Source: American Popular Songs: from the Revolutionary War to the Present, by David Ewen, 1966.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: lesblank
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 06:44 PM

Just to keep the record straight, Kate Smith sang "When the MOON comes over the mountain....!" I can really empathize with Tucker -- I've often lost more than 12 hours in one day.

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 10:11 PM

Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it. A good place to
start searching is (you guessed it) The Digital Tradition.
Right at the top of this page. Search for [swing on a star], and guess what you come up with.
Sigh.

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: Re: You're Terrific!
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 11:06 PM

Thanks all for the wonderful musical discussion. I now have a second class using the wonderful words of High Hopes! It's fun basing an art class on a song title. Everyone ends up singing the words as they work....Hmmmmm, maybe Whistle While you Work? :-) Thank you all.

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 11:25 PM

Dick Greenhaus: I am so sorry! Usually the DT is the FIRST thing I tell people to look in, or, I look in! Please forgive me! I was so excited about doing my fist HTML link that I got carried away!

Yes, it is worth it! If you could hear the guffaws, the tears, the absolute joy when I find some great lyrics in there and read them to Rog or to whomever is handy, or find ones my dad is looking for and send them to him with a success story, I think you'd find it must be worth it.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Apr 99 - 06:33 PM

Ah, here 'tis in the Good Book, the Gospel According to Greenhaus:

He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
It's in the database....

Poor Dick. Such a good soul, and does anybody ever listen to him?
-Joe offer-

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: Ferrara
Date: 25 Apr 99 - 10:57 PM

Yeah, I listen to him, especially late, late at night at the Getaway, when his encyclopedic knowledge of off-beat and little-known songs is a joy to be-hear. (Well, you can't be-hold a song, can you? - Rita F

ps, Dick, what Kat said goes mostly for me too, except that I don't usually get to tell anybody right away when I've found another song in the DT that maybe I was reminded of in the Forum and have always wanted to learn all the way through. I just learn it for the next open sing. ... I couldn't figure out why I was learning so many new songs lately, and then it hit me: I've never spent so much time Mudcatting before! - And if I've found several versions of a song here and there, or I hear it and wish I could sing it, or want to know more about its history, I usually look in the DT to see what Dick says, because I find it's a really trustworthy source.

But we do forget from time, to time, Dick... That's why it's called SomeTimers disease. (See WWI thread.) (Credit -- or Blame -- Vixen for this one, not me!) - Rita

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: Barbara
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 08:49 PM

There's also a wicked parody by Pat Donohoe floating around, called "Would You Like to Play the Guitar?" ("...carry money home in a jar...or would you rather have a job?")I posted it a couple months back. Just put the title in the Forum Search...
Blessings,
Barbara, who is really glad to have her computer back fromt he shop.

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 03:39 PM

anyone know who sang "would you like to swing on a star" the man and woman version?

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 08:47 PM

Big Dee Irwin & Little Eva?

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: AggieD
Date: 26 Apr 05 - 06:50 AM

I think you're right Guest Dale.

That version certainly brings back memories for me. I remember not being able to get to school one day because of bad snow in the winter of 63/64 & went to stay at my friends house, where we spent the whole day learning the lyrics & eating all the biscuits in the house!! I got into plenty of trouble though from my parents when I told them I hadn't been to school. They just couldn't see how the influence of learning music would have on me through the rest of my life.

Sweet memories of childhood.

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Apr 05 - 07:05 AM

Certainly would! Or a few stars even - Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Kylie Minogue etc...

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 27 Apr 05 - 07:20 AM

Hands up who remembers Little Lulu? Not the comic books, but the TV cartoons (probably about the same vintage as Your Hit Parade, which - along with Dragnet - was my favourite programme as a wee one). There was a Lulu episode featuring this song, complete with animated sequences which departed into rather surreal fantasy, not at all what 50s kid-TV usually did. It's managed to seep into the brain cells where other weightier info has drained away. (I can remember the NAMES of the panel on Your Hit Parade too - maybe it's something they put in California water.)

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: clueless don
Date: 27 Apr 05 - 12:01 PM

Earlier in the thread, dick greenhaus (on 24 Apr 99 - 10:11 PM) indicated that the original poster should have checked the DT first.

There is a link to the song in the DT at the top of the thread - and the lyrics are WRONG!

katlaughing (on 24 Apr 99 - 03:46 AM) posted a correct version.

Don

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 27 Apr 05 - 01:44 PM

An interesting (I think) side note. Noted New Jersey folk-singer Mike Agranoff planned to include the take-off "Would You Like to Play the Guitar?" (see link in this thread) on his CD entitled "...Or Would You Rather Get a Job?"

Unfortunately, he began the art work for hios CD before he got permission to use the tune from "Would You Like to Swing on a Star?".

When he did apply, the holders of the copyright refused him permission. So his CD title remains "...Or Would You Rather Get a Job?", but the song from where that line comes is not on the CD.

However, Mike continues to work and has not been sued by the copyright holders. If he had gone ahead with the song, a lawsuit would have been possible. Mike doesn't make enough money (I suspect) to afford that possibility.

Be his a warning to those who might wish to publish without permission.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 27 Apr 05 - 03:14 PM

Hi-
I freely admit to including some mangled lyrics in DT, but just telling us they're wrong isn't very helpful. Why not post a correction?

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: Frankham
Date: 27 Apr 05 - 04:39 PM

Don't know about a goat, Sue but we rewrote it for this verse:

Or would you rather be a camel?

A camel is an animal whose nasty and mean
His temper is the worst you've ever seen.
When he gets angry he has a fit
And better watch out 'cause he likes to spit.
So if you don't give a tinker's damn---well
You could grow up to be a cam----el.

Frank

Subject: RE: Would You Like To Swing On A Star?
From: clueless don
Date: 28 Apr 05 - 12:17 PM

On 27 Apr 05 (03:14 PM) dick greenhaus wrote "I freely admit to including some mangled lyrics in DT, but just telling us they're wrong isn't very helpful. Why not post a correction?"

As I indicated in my previous post, katlaughing (on 24 Apr 99 - 03:46 AM) posted a correct version.

I fear that the tone of my previous post was overwrought, for which I apologize. The point I was trying to make is that if the original poster had first checked the DT, she/he would have found the DT version, and might have said "Okay, now I have the lyrics!", without checking further. I therefore feel that there was value in starting a thread (which in this case produced a more accurate version.)

Don

Subject: RE: Would You Like to Swing on a Star?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 04:43 PM

In the mid 60's I bought the single of Would you......... and it was ung by duet m/f any ideas who????????????????

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Would You Like to Swing on a Star?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 06:58 PM

Wikipedia says SWINGING ON A STAR was recorded as a duet by Big Dee Irwin and Little Eva in 1963. You can hear a sound sample at Allmusic.com (but you might need to log in to do that).