Paul Anka has been singing for over six decades and in that time achieved memorable accomplishments as a performer and songwriter.
Anka, 75, plays The Sharon on Monday at 7 p.m. Here are some highlights of his long and successful career.
Anka and the teenage crush
The story goes when Anka was a kid up in Ottawa, Canada he developed a crush on a girl he hardly knew. Her name was Diana, and she was three years older.
Anka, was 16, when he auditioned for ABC-Paramount Records in 1957. The song he sang was “Diana.” He signed to the label and that year, “Diana,” hit No. 1 and Anka was a star, even appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” that year. Here is a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6oysubFDx4
Anka and Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly was doing a single in the fall of 1958 and needed a hit single. Anka wrote one of his best songs, “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.” Holly recorded it in October and it was scheduled for release early in 1959. It was the first Holly single to use strings for musical backing.
Holly was killed in an airplane crash in February, 1959. “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” became a huge hit soon after Holly’s death. Anka donated his royalties for the song to Holly’s widow. “’It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’” has a tragic irony about it now, but at least it will help look after Buddy Holly’s family,” Anka was quoted at the website songfacts.com. “I’m giving my composer’s royalty to his widow – it’s the least I can do.” He added that Holly, “was like a brother to me.”
Here is Anka at a Buddy Holly tribute concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soTEHGNK5vA
Anka and Annette Funicello
Annette was a “Mickey Mouse Club” star and she and Anka had a teen love affair. In 1960, Anka wrote “Puppy Love,” inspired by Annette. “As Paul wrote in his hit song about us, just because we were 17 didn’t mean that, for us, our love wasn’t real,” Annette wrote in her autobiography.
In 2013, after Annette’s death from MS, Anka issued the following statement: “Annette was a star from the time she was 12 years old, and I met her shortly after. In addition to her talent, she was self-possessed, determined, had incredible integrity, and was loved by everyone.
“When life threw her a terrible curve, she showed the best side of herself by coming forward to discuss her MS with courage and candor. As much as she entertained us as a young woman, she gave so much more by sharing her experience and raising awareness of this disease. She was kind and intelligent and she will be missed by her family and her wide circle of friends, in which I was lucky to be included.”
Anka and Johnny Carson
When Carson took over “The Tonight Show,” in the early ‘60s, Anka wanted to write the theme song. Carson’s bandleader didn’t want the song, but Anka won out, writing “Johnny’s Theme.”
“I said, ‘Well, you know what, Johnny? I’m giving you half the song,'” Anka told CBS News. Anka spilt the royalties with Carson on the “Tonight Show” theme, which was played five nights a week for 30 years. Anka earned millions off that song.
Anka and Frank Sinatra
Sinatra was looking for a song and in 1968 Anka wrote “My Way,” a standard for Old Blue Eyes and the rest of the world. It all started at dinner one night when Sinatra told Anka he was ready to quit show biz.
“When we had dinner, he said, ‘I’m quitting. I’m getting out of here,'” Anka told CBS News. “And that really hit me. He was retiring. And I just started typing, at 1 o’clock in the morning. ‘And now, the end is near. And so, I face the final curtain.’ A few months later, I got a phone call. He said, ‘Kid, listen to this.’ And he put the phone up to the speaker. And I heard ‘My Way’ for the first time. I started crying.” Here is a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP_tMa7VliY
Anka and Kurt Cobain
In 2005, Anka decided to offer a big band take on contemporary music. The album was called “Rock Swings” and featured a cover of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
“There will be an initial knee-jerk reaction to Anka doing Nirvana, and people will say nail him,” Anka told the New York Times. “But I want them to at least listen to it. And anyone astute enough who has any integrity musically will look at it and go, you know what…I didn’t want to like it, but it’s there, the quality is there.
These are great songs. Let’s not pigeonhole them as rock songs.” Here’s the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeEKpQhuFq4
Paul Anka’s partial hit list
“Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” “Lonely Boy,” “Puppy Love,” “You Are My Destiny,” “My Hometown,” “Having My Baby,” “She’s a Lady (Tom Jones),” “This Is It (Michael Jackson).”
