Paul Anka Biography Classic Songs, My Way
Life's been good to Paul Anka - very good, in fact. But even as he enters his 50th year in the music business, he's not satisfied when his own work is merely good. "For me," he says, "the good has always been the enemy of great. To be great, you've got to forget about that select few who are going to talk about you if you don't quite make the mark -- you've got to challenge yourself."
Armed with a sense of tenacity as formidable as his talent, Anka has conquered many challenges over the course of the last five decades, forging a career that's unlike any other in the history of pop. As he made the transition from '50s teen idol to celebrated songwriter to a contemporary torchbearer for all that swings, he has maintained a commitment to quality, bringing his best to whatever he faces. Indeed, Anka's two most recent albums - Rock Swings and now Classic Songs, My Way - have inspired millions of music listeners to not just hear some familiar songs in new ways but to marvel at the enduring ingenuity and integrity of Anka as an artist and performer.
Classic Songs, My Way features lush treatments of songs by Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, and Bryan Adams, a swinging take on the Killers' "Mr. Brightside" and surprising new renditions of two classics from Paul's own formidable canon. The recipient of valuable support from Anka earlier in his career, Michael Bublé returns the favor by joining his swing mentor on his 1958 Top 10 hit "You Are My Destiny" - the remarkable new version replaces the original's teenage ardour with a temperament that's older and wiser. For the album's grand finale, Jon Bon Jovi joins Anka on a soaring performance of "My Way," which Paul famously turned from a little-known French song into a perennial showstopper for his late friend Frank Sinatra.
Classic Songs, My Way encapsulates nearly every era of hit-making for Anka. Never one to rest on his laurels, he has had a song on Billboard's charts in every decade since 1957, when the Ottawa-born Anka was only 17. Since then, he's recorded over 120 albums in a wide variety of languages, selling close to 15 million albums worldwide and landing three No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 - "Diana," "Lonely Boy" and "(You're) Having My Baby." (The first of those hits reportedly sold 10 million copies worldwide - only "White Christmas" topped it.)
Plenty of other artists have him to thank for some big hits, too. His 900-song catalog includes such titles as "She's a Lady" (Tom Jones), "Puppy Love" (Donny Osmond), "It Doesn't Matter Any More" (Buddy Holly) and "Teddy" (Connie Francis). The theme he wrote for The Tonight Show was heard every night by millions of Johnny Carson fans. As for "My Way," it can be heard at any given moment in a karaoke bar somewhere on the planet.
Anka's most recent activities as a recording artist were sparked by his role in the career of a young artist who has fit into Sinatra's shoes quite comfortably. In 2003, he served as the executive producer on the self-titled debut album by Michael Bublé - the Vancouver singer performed Anka's "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" on his multi-platinum-selling disc. After Bublé's success created a new vogue for big-band jazz, the German record company Centaurus asked Anka to consider making an album of swinging standards. What happened next would change the course of Anka's career, re-establishing him with longtime fans and attracting many new ones.
"I wasn't interested in doing standards because I don't find that an event or a challenge," he says. "That's when I realized that there were songs out there that are great songs and have never been done like this. So that's what excited me enough to say, 'You know what? I want to go out there on that limb.' After not being in the studio for a few years, I was anxious to get back in to prove that point and to really see what I could make of this."
His goal on Rock Swings - and now Classic Songs, My Way - was to "take great songs and rework them so they're natural for me." With the help of his five daughters, Anka spent months researching music from the '80s and '90s, trying to find the songs that would work in the radical new context he proposed. The songs that made the cut included Bon Jovi's "It's My Life," Lionel Richie's "Hello" and Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven." Even more dramatic were his transformations of "Wonderwall" by Oasis, "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
Rock Swings went Top 10 in the UK, and was certified gold in the UK, France, and Canada, hit No. 2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart and went on to sell half a million units worldwide. Audiences worldwide were struck by his renewed vigour both on disc and in concert. Yet for this follow-up, he says he had no intention of making Rock Swings II. Only Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis" carried over from the original batch of candidates for Rock Swings -- "everything else was a new discovery for me," says Anka. The big reason behind that change was his desire to emphasize another important element of his repertoire: the ballads. "It all opened up the moment I realized I was going into ballad mode," he says. "There was a whole new group of songs that I would have never thought of for Rock Swings."
In place of the brash, brassy arrangements on the earlier record come more lush settings for such songs as Foreigner's "Waiting for a Girl Like You," Bryan Adams' "Heaven" and Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now." Anka was particularly pleased with the orchestral arrangements by Jeremy Lubbock, a British-born veteran who previously brought his skills to hits by Chicago, Whitney Huston and Barbra Streisand. Anka's Rock Swings collaborators Pat Williams, John Clayton and Randy Kerber also contributed their expertise, as did David Foster and the legendary Johnny Mandel.
Anka describes My Way as "a variation on the theme" established by Rock Swings, only with a wider range. "There was a lot more flexibility here as to the content. Songs like 'Both Sides Now' and Duran Duran's 'Ordinary World' had lyrics and chord structures that made them very palatable and very believable. 'Ordinary World' is one of my favorite tracks here." Anka was out to "find stuff that stretched me." Says the singer, "'Mr. Brightside' is one. 'Time After Time' is another - it's probably one of the best arrangements on there and it's never been done in this fashion."
And even the old turf feels new when it comes to the versions of "You Are My Destiny" and "My Way." Anka calls the former "a preview of an idea I've had for years, which is to take my oldies and give them re-treatments." Over the years, he notes, the fans who had a connection to his first hits have been able to come to shows and hear those songs re-arranged "with a different emotional fibre." Jon Bon Jovi on "My Way" also sees Anka push a much-loved song in a new direction. The presence of these songs - landmarks in both his history and the wider history of pop music - suggests the notion that Anka's five-decade career has come full circle.
Born July 30, 1941, in Ottawa into a tight-knit Lebanese-Canadian family, he didn't waste much time getting his life in music started. He sang in the choir at St. Elijah Syrian Orthodox Church and briefly studied piano. He honed his writing skills with journalism courses, even working for a spell at the Ottawa Citizen. By 13, he had his own vocal group, the Bobbysoxers. He performed at every amateur night he could get to in his mother's car, unbeknownst to his mother. He won a trip to New York by winning a Campbell's soup contest that required him to spend three months collecting soup can labels.
In 1956, he convinced his parents to let him travel to Los Angeles, where he called every record company in the phone book looking for an audition. A meeting with Modern Records led to the release of Anka's first single, "Blau-Wile Deverest Fontaine." It was not a hit, but Anka kept plugging away, going so far to sneak into Fats Domino's dressing room to meet the man in Ottawa. When Anka returned New York in 1957, he scored a meeting with Don Costa, the A&R man for ABC-Paramount Records. He played him a batch of songs that included "Diana" - Costa was duly enthusiastic about the potential of the young singer and songwriter. The rapid and enormous success of "Diana" made him a star.
"They are all very autobiographical," says Anka of his early hits. "I was alone, traveling, girls screaming, and I never got near them. I'm a teenager and feeling isolated and all that. That becomes 'Lonely Boy.' At record hops, I'm up on stage and all these kids are holding each other with heads on each other's shoulders. Then I have to go have dinner in my room because there are thousands of kids outside the hotel -- 'Put Your Head on My Shoulder' was totally that experience.
By the time the Beatles arrived, Anka had another tool in his survival kit. "After a few hits," he says, "I knew I was a writer, and with writers, the power was always in the pen. When I started writing for Buddy Holly and Connie Francis, I felt that it made me different for people -- they'd say, 'Hey, you can write, you can fall back on something." Among his proudest accomplishments was writing the Academy Award-nominated theme for The Longest Day, the 1962 film in which he also starred.
Songwriting and performing "are what gave me the confidence to keep going," he says. Becoming a junior associate of Sinatra and the Rat Pack also had its privileges. By the '70s, the success of "My Way" and a string of hits like "(You're) Having My Baby" confirmed his status as an icon of popular music. His later achievements as a recording artist included "Hold Me 'Til the Morning Comes," a hit duet with Peter Cetera in 1983, the Spanish-language album Amigos in 1996, and Body of Work, a 1998 duets album that featured Frank Sinatra, Celine Dion, Patti LaBelle, Tom Jones and daughter Anthea Anka.
With Rock Swings and Classic Songs, My Way, he has made a triumphant return to the recording studio, proving that his abilities as an artist and performer have hardly waned with the passage of time. Yet audiences at his shows all over the world already know that he remains an indefatigable entertainer. For Anka, getting the chance to wow a crowd is still the greatest thing of all.
PAUL ANKA - ROCK SWINGS (2005)
Track Listing
1. Eye Of The Tiger (original version by Survivor)(4:04)
2. Jump (original version by Van Halen)(3:37)
3. Everybody Hurts (original version by R.E.M)(4:12)
4. Wonderwall (original version by Oasis)(3:37)
5. Black Hole Sun (original version by Soundgarden)(4:27)
6. it’s My Life (original version by Bon Jovi)(4:04)
7. It’s A Sin (original version by Pet Shop Boys)(4:59)
8. True (original version by Spandau Ballet)(4:31)
9. Smells Like Teen Spirit (original version by Nirvana)(2:43)
10. Hello (original version by Lione Richie)(5:14)
11. Eyes Without A Face (original version by Billy Idol)(3:59)
12. Love Cats (3:59)
13. The Way You Make Me Feel (original version by Michael Jackson)(3:49)
14. Tears In Heaven (original version by Eric Clapton)(4:59)
