“Paul Anka, 84-year-old musician behind Sinatra's 'My Way,' refuses to quit”

From USA Today - Read the full article

Paul Anka is 84-years-old.

The Canadian American has been a songwriter and singer since he was 13.

He’s composed more than 900 songs and recorded more than 120 albums.

And doesn't plan to stop anytime soon.

“If you’re standing still, they’re throwing dirt on you,” Anka tells USA TODAY. “Curiosity is a beautiful thing. When I live within myself, I don’t live as an 84-year-old ‒ knock wood – I live like I’m in my 50s … People ask about retirement but how many books can you read? How many TV shows can you watch? I can still (perform). I own the space when I’m onstage and I don’t want to stop.”

Anka, a thoughtful conversationalist who shares stories with the sagacity of someone who has lived a fascinating life, is talking about his present.

But his immense career – one that includes writing lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and penning the immortal, instantly recognizable jazz instrumental that opened “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson for 30 years – receives its due spotlight with “Paul Anka: His Way,” an HBO documentary premiering Dec. 1.

The 100-minute film is bookended by Anka’s performance at the 2023 Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration. But throughout, charming video and stills, along with current interviews, concert footage and time with his family (son-in-law actor Jason Bateman makes a vocal cameo) and beloved Bernese dogs, paint the backdrop of his momentous career.

From his young heartthrob years, when the late-‘50s/early ‘60s swoon-alongs “Diana,” “Puppy Love” and “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” topped charts and hearts, through his time hanging with the Rat Pack in Las Vegas (“I was the luckiest teenager in the world,” he says now of the education he absorbed from Sinatra and Co.), Anka had already established himself as a significant star.

Doja Cat samples Paul Anka, Drake and TikTok spotlight his enduring appeal.

The film veers into this century, when Anka – who sustained success throughout the decades writing hits for Tom Jones (“She’s a Lady”), Sammy Davis Jr. (“I’m Not Anyone”) and himself (“You’re) Having My Baby,” “Times of Your Life") – returned to the charts. There was the “Rock Swings” covers album, posthumous Michael Jackson songs and shared studio time with Drake (“Don’t Matter to Me,” originally written for Jackson).

A few years ago, Doja Cat sampled “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” in “Freak,” and more recently, a wave of TikTokers discovered “Shoulder,” turning it into a typical TikTok trend, which tickles Anka in the documentary.

It’s also a telling moment when he runs into some Gen Z-ers from New York while in Tokyo. As soon as they realize who he is, mouths drop and phones are brandished for selfies.

Anka sees the generational endurance whenever he faces an audience. He’s just returned from shows in Chile and Mexico City – the latter for a crowd of 10,000 – and excitedly recounts seeing younger faces singing along.

“I’ve got kids coming to the show. Are they 90% of the audience? No, but they’re there,” he says.

Olive oil, exercise and clean living keep Anka spry.

Anka is unfailingly humble and appreciative of his sustained success – a new album, "Inspirations of Life and Love," drops Feb. 13, a round of US dates kicks off Jan. 2 and a Broadway musical is in the works – but he’s also lived a life conducive to longevity.

Every morning he chugs a shot of olive oil with lemon, one of several regimens he maintains to preserve his voice. A lifetime of regular exercise and mostly shunning meat has also benefited his stamina. And as he learned during his time with the original Rat Pack sometimes witnessing what not to do is a valuable life lesson.

“Coming out of the Vegas world with Sinatra and Dean Martin and Sammy (Davis Jr.), all the bad habits prevail. But I bypassed the smoking and drinking, maybe had the odd cigar, but never anything invasive to my throat. When I saw how they lived as adults I realized, you can’t do that. I lived around Frankie Lymon shooting up heroin (he died of an overdose in 1968 at age 25) … I saw what alcohol did to Frank and Sammy. That wasn’t my vision of my upbringing,” Anka says.

One of the many constructive pieces of performing that Anka learned from Sinatra was the importance of being surrounded by top-notch musicians on stage, a credo Anka still implements.

He’s also a student of his audiences, realizing that if a crowd doesn’t like what they see and hear, they’ll never return.

Anka says he prepares all of his tours with “a certain regime.”

“I don’t retire songs. I get a demographic read of age and put together a program indigenous to the people who will be there,” he says. “What I’ve learned is if you’re honestly doing a program of songs that you’re into, people will feel it, they’ll see it with their ears. Never underestimate someone who overestimates themselves.”

'There was nobody like Frank,' Anka says of his 'My Way' muse.

One of the most intriguing segments of the documentary is the in-depth history of the creation of “My Way.”

How Anka, at 25, wanted to write a song for Sinatra after he announced he was eyeing retirement. How he heard the French song “Comme d’habitude” in 1967, restructured the melody and wrote lyrics befitting his older idol. How he wrote the song in five hours, sitting in his New York apartment at midnight with his Selectric typewriter, a storm raging outside. How he cried when Sinatra’s agent first played the recorded song over the phone for him.

The anthem – a glorious combination of perseverance and pride – was soon covered by Elvis Presley and Sid Vicious and remains a staple of karaoke nights, barroom jukeboxes, sporting events and funerals.

But to Anka, there is only one definitive “My Way,” only one singer who could inhabit the weariness of those opening lines, “And now, the end is near/And so I face the final curtain.”

“There was nobody like Frank. I’ve seen it all, those who have tried. He just had that ‘it’ they talk about,” he says. “That voice, you know in five seconds.”

Given the undiminished adoration of the song, it’s fair to wonder if the man who shaped it might consider it his own theme song.

Anka pauses to consider.

“We can all certainly subscribe to that notion,” he says. “We’ve all done it our way.”