When You Wish upon a Star

When You Wish Upon A Star is a song that was written in 1940 by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington. In the version by Cliff Edwards, sung in the film by the Disney character Jiminy Cricket, he won as a film song for the Walt Disney movie Pinocchio the Academy Award for Best Song. The American Film Institute chose the song at number seven the list America's Greatest Music in the Movies.

In the film, Jiminy Cricket first sings the song that is about the wishes come true, to then tell the story of Pinocchio. The song was used over the years to become a distinctive mark of Disney and was in the 1950s and 1960s as the theme song of the Disney television shows.

Connie Francis released the song on her album Connie Francis sings Award Winning Motion Picture Hits. Other cover versions come from Guy Lombardo, Horace Heidt and Cliff Edwards.

Already in the 1940s the song Swing musicians and orchestras was covered, including by Chick Bullock, Glenn Miller, Will Bradley, Harry James and Red Nichols, in Europe also by Stan Brenders, Svend Asmussen, Putte Wickman, Bernard Peiffer and Charlie and his Orchestra. Over time, the song became a jazz standard and was recorded by many jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Glenn Miller, Joe Pass, Keith Jarrett, Manhattan Transfer, Sun Ra and Bill Evans. Tom Lord lists 255 cover versions of the title.