Paul Anka: My Way
p2pnet news | Music:- Paul Anka’s latest album, “Classic Songs: My Way” on Decca Records debuted at #2 on the Canadian album chart according to AC Nielsen Soundscan data. It wasn’t enough to beat out the “High School Musical 2″ soundtrack which, with a mere 31 more copies sold, remains at # 1 for a fourth consecutive week.
Anka’s five decade career is a remarkable story in which he transformed himself from being a ’50s teen idol into a superb vocal musician recognized around the world, and one of most successful pop songwriters in history.
Anka has recorded 126 albums to date and sold close to 15 million albums worldwide. Among his Billboard chart statistics are three #1 songs, “Diana,” “Lonely Boy,” and “You’re Having My Baby,” as well as 22 Top 20 hits.
Anka has a staggering 900 original songs to his credit – 130 recorded by other artists including Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, and Robbie Williams. He is particularly well-known for penning 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).
Anka has been the discoverer of artists you wouldn’t expect to be even on his radar. He boosted the careers of Canadians Michael Buble, and David Clayton-Thomas, of course, but he also discovered, and brought to U.S. labels, American singer/songwriters John Prine, and Steve Goodman. Anka also discovered Corey Hart at age 16, funding his first singles for United Artists.
In the summer of 1956, when Anka was 14, his parents allowed him to travel by himself to Los Angeles to visit his uncle Maurice. Anka began working at the Civic Playhouse selling candy bars during intermission.
Every day he would leaf through the telephone book calling record companies, asking them to listen to a song he had written with his uncle. He was turned down by all of them. One day at Wallach’s Music City, at the corner of Sunset and Vine, Anka was listening in the store’s booths to ‘Stranded in the Jungle’ by the Cadets. He noticed on the record label that Modern Records had offices in nearby Culver City.
The Modern label was formed in 1945 in Los Angeles by Saul and Jules Bihari. The label recorded R&B, country & western, jazz, popular, blues, and gospel. The subsidiary label RPM was formed in 1950 and released blues, jazz, R&B and srock & roll.
Modern/RPM was highly successful in the late ’40s and early ’50s, with such blues performers as B.B. King, Roscoe Gordon, Elmore James, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jimmy Witherspoon, and John Lee Hooker; and in the rock & roll field, with the vocal groups the Cadets, Marvin and Johnny, the Jacks, and the Teen Queens, and such singers as Jesse Belvin, Etta James, Richard Berry, and Shirley Gunter.
Anka convinced his uncle to drive him to Modern. The label’s A&R head Ernie Freeman, a veteran of Los Angeles’ jazz scene, then listened to his song “Blau-Wile Deveest Fontaine,” inspired by the African village in John Buchan’s novel “Prestor John’ (which Anka had studied in high school), and signed Anka as the only white act in the company.
“Blau-Wile Deveest Fontaine” was released on RPM in 1956. Uptempo with a slight Middle Eastern feel and arrangement, it was an oddity in contrast to the simple and conservative true love songs of the mid-’50s.
‘The back-up singers on the record were the Cadets; I could not believe what was happening to me,’ recalls Anka.
Despite pioneering R&B disc jockey George “Hound Dog” Lorenz trying to break it in Buffalo, the record stiffed. However, Anka did get to appear nationally on CBC-TV’s “Pick the Stars” and “Cross-Canada Hit Parade.’ The track surfaced in 1959 on the Riveria Records budget album ‘The Fabulous Paul Anka – Paul Anka and Others.’
At 16, Anka went to New York City, carrying with him “Diana,” a song written about his crush on an older high school friend. He stayed with the Rover Boys-sleeping in the bathtub of their suite at the President Hotel–and eventually he met with Don Costa, then handling A&R at ABC-Paramount Records.
“A disc jockey in Toronto sent ABC a lead sheet on ‘Diana,’” recalled Costa in 1975. “There wasn’t even a demo with it. I read it over-and it looked interesting. So we sent for a demo. Paul was so crazy that when we sent for the demo he came down from Ottawa. He floated around the city waiting for an appointment, and one day we sat down and played a bunch of his songs.’
Costa was so impressed that he called in other label executives. They all agreed Anka had talent. Within the week, Paul`s father arrived to sign a recording contract on his son’s behalf.
As a teenager whenever a rock and roll show came through Ottawa Anka was there trying to get backstage to meet his idols. This included a rock n’ roll revue at the Ottawa Coliseum in the mid-50s featuring Fats Domino, the Platters, Chuck Berry, and Clyde McPhatter. It was at that show that Berry, after watching an Ottawa fan, was inspired to write “Sweet Little Sixteen.
In 1962, trying to reach a broader audience, Anka left ABC-Paramount and signed with RCA Victor. In leaving ABC-Paramount, Anka purchased his masters and publishingâan unheard feat in those days. It set him back $250, 000.
That was all I had in the bank, recalls Anka. But I felt strong about my future.
Soon afterwards, ABC-Paramount offered Ray Charles a contract with an increased artist royalty; a producer’s royalty, his own label named Tangerine, plus the rights to his recordings that would revert to him when he left the label.
Ray was a buddy and I told him `If you are going to ABC, get your masters,` recalls Anka. He took a shot and he got them as well.
Larry LeBlanc
[Journalist/broadcaster/historian Larry LeBlanc has been a leading figure in Canadian music for four decades. To be added to this email list write: LJLE @ aol dot com.]
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