Quote:
Originally Posted by charlene
I've seen him many times on TV and always found him disingenuous in his humility. He always is bragging on himself and listing his accomplishments. He is friendly and a great interview but he smacks a bit of an oily used car salesman. He's always seemed to be just about Paul regardless of what the topic may turn to. He can be quite a charmer too - perhaps he's just that way when he's here in Canada/ He's not nasty arrogant..but he blows his own horn too much for my liking.
The Canadian Idol show he was on was not like Lightfoot's where the kids sang the songs..He was just there as an 'icon' to offer 'advice' on old standards they sang and HE sang his songs!
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...ol2007&no_ads=
He's sucked the life right out of "My Way" by bastardizing it for a million different people-altering the lyrics etc. and making the song more of a 'novelty' than the great song it really is.
He just bugs me..While I like to hear the old stuff of his it's really bubblegum music.
Just my opinion..I may be wrong..
Char |
Hi Charlene,
No, your not too far wrong. I have the same toughts as you about our {Canadian ?} friend doing it his way...
And in this morning's paper here is what I found on Paul Anka !
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paul Anka is shown in Los Angeles at Capital Records.
Canadian born Anka says he's still 'too good'
After 50 years of performing, legendary Paul Anka is still chasing the musical muse
By John Rogers
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published Thursday October 25th, 2007
LOS ANGELES - Paul Anka has written an inordinate amount of pop music classics, cranking out hit songs like "My Way" for Frank Sinatra, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" for Buddy Holly, saving "Lonely Boy," "Put Your Head on My Shoulder," "Puppy Love" and others for himself -- not bad for a guy who arrived on the music scene in 1956 with a not-quite-as-catchy tune about a place called Blaauwildebeestefontein.
Anka, who's marking his 50th year in show business, actually tried to break into the business 51 years ago.
"A lot of people don't know I came to L.A. the prior year to visit an uncle," the 66-year-old Ottawa-born singer-songwriter recalled recently as he was putting the finishing touches on his anniversary album, the just-released "Classic Songs My Way."
Still a high school student, Anka had brought with him the book "Prester John" by John Buchan, a former Canadian governor general.
"The premise of it took place in Africa," he recalled. "There was a town called Blaauwildebeestefontein. I loved the title, so I hitchhiked to Culver City and made a record of it."
The result?
"I was a failure at 15," Anka laughed.
Fortunately for him, Sinatra, Johnny Carson (Anka wrote Carson's "The Tonight Show" theme) and pop music in general, he headed to New York the following year.
This time he brought with him a more traditional song about a 16-year-old's unrequited love for an older woman.
"Diana" became a No. 1 hit and turned a short kid whose voice hadn't quite matured into an overnight teen idol.
Fifty years later, he's still short but the voice is deeper and richer and the '50s-style pop star pompadour is gone, having surrendered to a slightly receding hairline.
Anka is also still writing songs, still recording and touring, and still occasionally discovering the latest new thing.
When urban folk music had a renaissance in the 1970s, he found John Prine and Steve Goodman in Chicago.
When pop crooners came back into style earlier this decade, he discovered fellow Canadian Michael Buble and helped produce his first album.
But Anka is especially proud that, no matter what the current trend, he's placed a Billboard Top 50 hit on the charts in every decade of his career.
"We'll talk again in 2010," he jokes during a recording studio break. "I've got one decade left."
Or maybe two.
"When I'm in a studio I wish everybody could get off on it like I do," he says.
"It's such a great occupation, I don't want to retire.
"Oh, I'll slow down a little," he adds.
"But to totally retire? It ain't gonna happen. I'm too good at what I do, whereas I wasn't years ago."