Luxe Life Blog
Doing it his way, Paul Anka reflects on more than 50 years in show business
Paul Anka.
Photo: Paul Anka
It’s one of the most staggering and sensational successes in all of show-business history. Paul Anka, one of this century’s most extraordinary entertainers and super-songwriters, heads into Las Vegas for three nights at The Orleans with a 17-piece orchestra starting this evening. When he takes to the stage there tonight, it will be difficult to believe his star has shone for more than five decades! In fact, it’s 51 years that the legendary performer has been a Vegas mainstay ever since his first show at the Sahara back in 1959 with Sophie Tucker -- and he has no intention of calling it quits or even slowing down.
“What else am I going to do? If I stand still, they’ll throw dirt on me as I die,” Paul said to me in an exclusive interview. “What would I do? I like this little niche that I’ve carved out, and there is still a demand for it. So until the health goes, then I will re-evaluate. Until then I will keep doing it so I don’t die!”
I’ve known the 67-year-old, Canadian-born entertainer for three decade,s ever since he appeared as one of the early interview subjects on my old TV show Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous. The statistics behind his charmed career are simply super: As a recording artist, he’s sold more than 40 million albums and singles worldwide. He had three No. 1 songs (“Diana,” “Lonely Boy” and “You’re Having My Baby”) in addition to another 22 Top 20 hits including “Puppy Love.” He has recorded 125 albums, including more than 10 in Japanese, German, Spanish, French and Italian and composing songs tailored to each country.
Paul has written a staggering 900 songs, 130 recorded by artists including Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt and Robbie Williams. He is well known for penning The Tonight Show theme, and signature songs for others, notably “It Doesn't Matter Anymore” (Buddy Holly), “She’s a Lady” (Tom Jones), “Puppy Love” (Donny Osmond) and, of course, “My Way” (Frank Sinatra).
“In the beginning, people didn't come to see me because I was a performer,” Paul said. “They came to see me because I had a hit song. Now they come because they know I’ll give them a performance like no one else.” His last release was his most personal album to date, My Way – Swings & Strings, a collection of his favorite songs covering his own greatest hits, elite singer-songwriters, ballads and pop and adult contemporary classics. It was the perfect follow-up to his last gold disc Rock Swings and still features that distinctive, unmistakable voice.
Here’s our candid and chatty conversation:
Robin Leach: Congratulations on 51 years as an entertainer! I don’t even think of you even being 50.
Paul Anka: Neither do I; maybe that is how I did it. I don’t stop to think about it. The worst thing in life is to over think things in life you can do nothing about. I’m feeling great and looking forward to coming to The Orleans, coming to Vegas and seeing all my friends again. People ask me why I keep doing this, but I’ve watched all my friends do it and it’s no different. Sinatra did it eight times, and he wouldn’t stay home. I am still young, vital and still moving forward musically, so I am committed to working.
Paul Anka greets fans during a concert at the Las Vegas Hilton.
RL: I looked at all of these stats before we talked, and I came to the conclusion you are the most prolific man in the music business. You’re still working like you’re 21.
PA: Billboard said I’d broken six consecutive records with different songs I’d written or music I’d produced for others or myself. I certainly don’t feel my age. Today, we are medically driven, and so my 67 is now 50. We are all living longer if we take care of ourselves. I have a health regime. I exercise and I eat very carefully. I don’t eat white bread. There are certain ways I live and eat. I have my wine and champagne in Europe. It is all in moderation. I look at all of these kids in the record industry and shake my head in despair. For some it’s really bad. First of all, they innately know they are not going to last. Intellectually, they know they cannot handle their success. I know what it is like. I had good people around me, and you are fighting every day in terms of how to handle it. You give these kids today maybe not in relativity in terms of how they are compensated, but the attention they are getting. What really and who are they? Do they have good, loyal managers? What is really the depth of their talent and drive? In this disposable society today, they get this quick taste of success, then it’s the needle up their arm and then it is over. It is really tough.
RL: Paul, when you look at these 900 songs to your credit -- all of them really memorable numbers -- what does that say about the state of today’s songwriting hits? Do they make hits like you used to?
PA: I think there are some writers out there who are limited -- a lot of people, when we did rock swing, only had three to four hits. But if you take the people that have longevity like Billy Joel, Diane Warren and Stevie Wonder, they will be heard for many years. Just like Sinatra, those are the people that really put the branding on those types of songs. I have had an eclectic group of songs and the others were pop records or rock records, but they were always good songs.
RL: Is “Diana” still one of your favorites?
PA: No, it was the beginning. It certainly has sentimental value and uniqueness to a kid. I went to school to be a journalist but didn’t do it. Instead, my writing got me to show my hand in music and just started writing what I learned as a teenager at 15 to 16 years old -- very much what any kid would write. After I got lucky with “Diana,” I kept it as my kickoff song. Songs are like children. It is very hard to choose a favorite, but I would probably lean a little more toward “My Way” and “Let Me Try Again” and “Do I Love You.” Some I did for Sammy Davis are very special, and even thought they didn’t make Top 10 for him, they did make Top 50, so I am doing those in the show. Sammy was a great friend. I do a duet with him on the new CD, and it was a great moment for me.
Paul Anka sings "My Way" on the finale of American Idol.
RL: When one talks about a great French chef and great recipes, it’s all about the success of many ingredients. Is it the same for a songwriter?
PA: There are certain ingredients, but the outcome is far more successful for the chef than it is for the songwriter. If all of us had that crystal ball, or knew the process to guarantee hits, it would be a different process. You sit down and you need a structure, a good melody, a chord, and words should all marry. I could have a chord that worked, but the words didn’t until someone put the right words to the note. If you don’t have the right word to the right note of the song, you don’t have a hit. But there are the right ingredients and the right structure to a song, and you have to get a feel and the magic has to come together.
RL: Can you remember the shortest and the longest time it took you to write a hit?
PA: Yes. “She’s a Lady” for Tom Jones was the shortest -- just 90 minutes. I met Tom doing a show in London, and he’d never had a No. 1 hit. I started the words on a TWA flight on the back of a menu on the way home. I came home and put it on the piano and knocked it out -- that was the quickest. “My Way” was five hours, which was short compared to “The Longest Day,” which took me weeks, months because of the nature of the movie -- that was the longest and that took me awhile.
RL: So where does the genius come from to just let the fingers fly and create a mega-hit? Where is that tucked in your psyche?
PA: I don’t know if it is all genius. That is a word used “to know it all” -- if you are a craftsman and very focused on the integrity of the work and use great integrity. I think it is the same analogy if you are a great craftsman. You sit down and it states what you really have to do. The genius comes into those that really have to do it all. The arrangers, those kinds of guys; the songwriters and those that can write where you feel. A genius? Maybe Ray Charles. He is the one that would come to mind. It is knowing your craft and knowing how to pull it all together.
RL: Looking back over half a century, what personal highlight has made this show business journey so worthwhile?
PA: I think the longevity and the lasting and the growth through certain periods where I bettered what I was about. I was able to get over hurdles where I was able to see that growth: where I lasted long enough to look back and not have regrets. It is a very tough journey that brought many temptations. I think that all of us know that with success comes the subliminal demons, and the demons really test us and how far that center line is that we walk and how far left and right we go and how well we control ourselves. It is really a minority group in who achieves success in all aspects and sections of life. In the leisure business, the notoriety of what we do, the royalty aspect into what we do and what we are allowed to do, is different and unique. We get the perks and overcoming all of that is really a chess game to beat the next move, and you have to go real low to appreciate that. It is a tough spoon to get up, and I have tasted it in this business.
Success is something not just in a bank and unfortunately it is a big claim on us when we get it, and it is really tough for us to get to the next stage in our life, because the behavior today is the culmination of what we were. I did the shows at the White House and at Buckingham Palace. They were certainly poignant, but is it some kind of reinforcement that we made it? When you step back and look at life, I don’t know how much is real and how much is shallow. It really isn’t that kind of a world. You have to look out for yourself and the people you want to live by, the rest is garbage, and there’s a lot of false stuff always around you, so you have to recognize the differences. It helps to stare out a window at the ocean, to be up here in the mountains -- I love that kind of life because that is real spiritually.
I am in that phase now, from my point of view, I have the flag at the top of the hill and that is what is driving me onwards and upwards. I know what is going on within. I have been signed to a book deal, and I have had overtures for Broadway and TV, and I haven’t decided what I want to do there. It is a one-shot deal. Broadway has certainly opened up more pop music and so the book is important, these next three CDs are important to show where I am at today and not where people are premeditated what Anka is and what Anka was. It is not that I am not happy and not totally fulfilled in what I am, but that is what drives me until I reinvent.
RL: Do you ever think of playing Vegas more often, like Elton John or Barry Manilow?
PA: Well they have approached me. I am not ready to settle down yet, and I am a world’s international gypsy. I have got to do my Asian and Europe stuff. Maybe in a couple of years. Barry didn’t want to tour anymore, so he decided Vegas would work for him. It is a possibility, but first I want to get my book out. Entertainers are certainly making more money there than touring. It is all about the money today. Years ago, they used to rag on Vegas, Elton and Barry: “Oh, I wouldn’t be seen there and I was a Vegas regular.” They go on the road and bring home 5 percent profit, they go to Vegas and keep 90 percent, and it doesn’t take a genius to do the math. It is like these guys that want to get a divorce and then they do the math and then they say, “Oops, I still love you.” I love Vegas. I love my friends there, so one day when I settle down more, then you can expect me. Until then come see me at the weekend!”
He’s working on the book of his own life story, and there’s serious talk of it being eventually turned into a musical akin to Jersey Boys, the music about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. “I’ve never looked backwards, but now I’m finally figuring out where all the years have gone. I’ve been a perfectionist and a survivor. I couldn’t be happier with life. I have my son, my health, my career and my wife. What else can one ask for?”
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