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Paul Anka: Still doing it his way

By Diana Lasko dlasko@heraldstandard.Com 8 min read
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Latshaw Productions presents Paul Anka in concert 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Palace Theatre, Otterman Street, Greensburg. Admission: $45-$95. Tickets: 724-836-8000.

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Paul Anka: Still doing it his way
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The original teen idol, Paul Anka.

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Paul Anka co-wrote a song with Michael Jackson in 1983 that was released in 2009 after Jackson's death.

Details:

Paul Anka

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

Where: The Palace Theatre, Otterman Street, Greensburg

Admission: $45-$95

Tickets: 724-836-8000

Paul Anka was the original teen idol.

His string of hits that shaped a generation included “Diana,” “Lonely Boy,” and “Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” and began his career as a successful singer, songwriter, recording artist and performer.

He will bring those hits Tuesday to the Palace Theatre in Greensburg. 

As Anka’s star was on the rise, Anka’s wagon was hitched to some of the most iconic men of the 20th century.

Anka wrote “My Way,” the signature ballad that re-launched the career of Frank Sinatra in 1969, but by that time, “The Kid” as Anka was known, became an honorary member of the Rat Pack and witness to the legendary weaknesses of its members.

In his 2013 memoir, Anka candidly penned the sordid details surrounding his friendship with Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and even, then Sen. John F. Kennedy, which at first he acknowledges was alluring.

“From the first time I heard about the Rat Pack, I wanted to be around these guys and amazingly, they took me in,” Anka writes.

But Anka also describes drunken fights and sexual escapades in Las Vegas as well as Sinatra’s notorious “fascination” with the Mafia.

“I saw the reality: Kennedy and the hookers, the women who hung around Frank, and the mob. . . . The things I saw and witnessed, it was all part of show business, but it was pretty wild. All the JFK escapades with show girls happened in Vegas.”

Anka continued, “Frank was tied up with the mob to the degree where he did favors for them. He liked the thrill of being involved with gangsters. Jules Podell, the owner of the Copa, told me that he acted as a bagman for the Mafia a number of times, but they eventually stopped using him because he always got caught.”

The tales he writes about were a long way from his humble beginnings in Ottawa, Canada, and the soup label contest that got him to the Big Apple.

Anka sang in the church choir and 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 her of course. Anka won a trip to New York by winning a Campbell’s soup contest for IGA Food Stores that required him to spend three months collecting soup can labels. It was there his dream was solidified, he was going to make it as a singer composer; there was not a doubt in his young tenacious mind.

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 and his manager in Ottawa.

When Anka returned to 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” – a song that made Costa enthusiastic about Anka’s potential as a singer/songwriter.

“They are all very autobiographical,” said 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.”

Anka then found himself traveling by bus with the ‘Cavalcade of Stars’ and the top names of the day in the era of segregation. Performing at the Copa Cabana, the youngest entertainer ever to do so, Anka was honing his craft surrounded by the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Frankie Lyman, and Chuck Berry.

By the time the Beatles arrived in the ’60s, Anka had another tool in his survival kit.

“After a few hits,” he said, “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.'”

Anka has written more than 900 songs in his career and notes among his proudest accomplishments is 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 said.

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 Chicago’s 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.

In 2009, it was revealed that Anka co-wrote Michael Jackson’s posthumous worldwide hit, “This Is It,”

The song, according to Anka, was recorded in 1983 and intended to be a duet between him and MJ on Anka’s “Walk a Fine Line” album under the title “I Never Heard,” but plans fell through.

Singer Sa-Fire recorded the track in 1991 for her album “I Wasn’t Born Yesterday,” and the duet verson of the song was featured on “Duets” as well.

Sony Music discovered the Jackson demo version of the song after his death and worked out a deal with Anka for the publishing rights.

Anka’s two most recent albums – “Rock Swings” and now “Classic Songs, My Way” – featured songs originally created by some of the biggest rock performers of the day – as well as other established artists across several genres. The twist: Paul Anka did the songs ‘his way.’

“Taking 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.”

“I like the group of artists I felt I could bring together to tie into the material, which was crucial. Things just came together at the right time,” said Anka.

Anka stays plugged into contemporary music although he admits finding artists with longevity is difficult.

“It’s kind of frightening what prevails. It’s a sign of the times, we’re never going to stop it and who knows how obsolete today’s stuff is. But there’s not a huge quantity of great quality stuff,” said Anka. “Jack White is a great artist. Bruno Mars. My guy is Michael Buble. So there’s good stuff out there.”

Anka served as a mentor early on in Buble’s career and helped him raise a half million to held launch his recording career. Buble, a Canadian swing music and standards crooner, has recorded with Anka and performed on stage with him as well.

“Someone has to be a catalyst for that kind of music. I mean who’s around,” said Anka.

Performing is still a primary motivation for Anka and he remains focused on bringing his A-game to the audience.

“I can’t believe I’m still here doing it and I’m grateful to be here doing it. Because in my DNA is such a work ethic, it’s important that everything be right. I’m hands-on with everything. I have a regimen the day of the show. It’s all the little things that keep the mechanism working,” he said.

And Anka knows grabbing the room in the first few minutes of any performance is key.

“That where my focus is. I leave it all on the stage. I owe that to the audience.”

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