Catch A Falling Star

Album: Greatest Hits (1958)
Charted: 9 1
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Songfacts®:

  • This song was written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss. The pair also wrote Briah Hyland's 1960 hit "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini."
  • When Perry Como recorded this song he was a very popular star. The crooner with a relaxed style was one of the highest-paid performers of his era and his Perry Como Show was the most successful television variety show of the time in both Britain and America. Como sang this song on his show in January 1958 and its exposure contributed to the tune's success.
  • This was the first ever record certified by the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA) as gold for selling over a million copies and on March 14th, 1958 the first ever gold record was officially presented to Como. Although this song became the first to win million-seller certification, other songs dating as far back as the 1920s did sell over a million records or more. Indeed there were incidents of record companies spraying records gold and awarding them to artists. For instance, in February 1942 RCA gave Glenn Miller a "gold" record to acknowledge a million sales for "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." However, due to a lack of a certification organization such as the RIAA, they were unofficial awards.
  • Perry Como won a 1958 Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance for this song.
  • During the song's chart run, a parody version "Catch a Perry Como, wash him in some Omo" was popular in schools.
  • This featured in the 1993 film A Perfect World.

Comments: 3

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn July 13, 1965, Linda Scott performed "Catch A Falling Star" on the Dick Clark produced ABC-TV network weekday-afternoon program ' Where The Action Is'...
    Her covered version of the song did not make Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; but she did have three charted records with 'star' in their title; "I've Told Every Little Star" {#3 in 1961}, "Starlight, Starbright" {#44 in 1961}, and "Count Every Star" {#41 in 1962}....
    Between March 1961 and January 1964 she had eleven records on the Hot Top 100; two made the Top 10; besides "I've Told Every Little Star", her other Top 10 record was "Don't Bet Money, Honey", it reached #9 {for 2 weeks} on August 28th, 1961...
    Ms. Scott, born Linda Joy Sampson, celebrated her 72nd birthday last month on June 1st, 2017.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn December 3rd 1957, at the RCA Victor Studio 'A' in New York City, Perry Como recorded the Hal David and Burt Bacharach composition, "Magic Moments"...
    At the time Marty Robbins' "The Story of My Life" was at #40 on Billboard's Top 100 chart, and it was the first David/Bacharach composition to make the national charts, eventually it would peak at #15...
    And on January 5th, 1958 "Magic Moments"* would enter the Top 100 at #78; eventually it would peak at #4...
    * The flip-side of "Magic Moments" was "Catch A Falling Star", it would peak at #1 {for 1 week} on Billboard’s Most Played by Jockeys chart on March 18th, 1958.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyThe 1958 Grammy Awards were the first year of these awards!!!
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