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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.
by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss
[START WITH CHORUS] – – – – –
[D] For love may come an’ tap you on the shoulder, [A] Some star-less night! [D] Just in case you feel you wanna’ hold her, [A] You’ll have a [E] pocketful of starlight!
[CHORUS] – – – – – [A] Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket. [E] Never let it fade away! [A] Catch a falling star an’ put it in your pocket. [E] Save it for a rainy [A] day!
[D] For when your troubles start’n’ multiplyin’, [A] An’ they just might! It’s [D] easy to forget them without tryin’, [A] With just a [E] pocketful of starlight!
[CHORUS] – – – – – [E] Save it for a rainy [A] day!
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