Classic Songs, My Way: The new album features lush treatments of songs by Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, and Bryan Adams, a swinging take on the Killers' "Mr. Brightside" and surprising new renditions of two classics from Paul's own formidable canon. The recipient of valuable support from Anka earlier in his career, Michael Buble returns the favour by joining his swing mentor on his 1958 Top 10 hit "You Are My Destiny" - the remarkable new version replaces the original's teenage ardour with a temperament that's older and wiser. For the album's grand finale, Mr Anka performs a soaring performance of "My Way," which Paul famously turned from a little-known French song into a perennial showstopper for his late friend Frank Sinatra.Classic Songs, My Way encapsulates nearly every era of hit-making for Anka. Never one to rest on his laurels, he has had a song on Billboard's charts in every decade since 1957, when the Ottawa-born Anka was only 17. Since then, he's recorded over 120 albums in a wide variety of languages, selling close to 15 million albums worldwide and landing three No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 - "Diana," "Lonely Boy" and "(You're) Having My Baby." (The first of those hits reportedly sold 10 million copies worldwide - only "White Christmas" topped it.)
Paul Anka follows up 2005's Rock Swings, his popular collection of covers done classic Vegas ¬style, with another collection of unlikely pop and rock songs--also done classic Vegas ¬style. One of the most familiar tricks could be termed the reverse stunt: Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," for instance, is speeded up into a fingersnapping brassy strut. (On Rock Swings, Anka had famously done the exact opposite with "Smells Like Teen Spirit," slowing it down to a loungy pace.) But hey, if it's not broken! After all, Anka is in fine vocal form and he sure knows how to sing against the big-band arrangements. Once again, the best songs are the most unexpected, like the strutting take on the Killers' "Mr. Brightside," the triumphant read of Foreigner's "Waiting for a Girl Like You," which gradually builds up, the super-lush cover of Duran Duran's "Ordinary World," and the strutting "Walking in Memphis." Note that Anka actually picked from his own oeuvre for the albums's two duets: Michael Bublé joins his onetime mentor on 1958's "You Are My Destiny," while Bon Jovi helps out on "My Way" (a song Anka adapted from a French original)--which paradoxically is the least convincing track in the bunch. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
More from Paul Anka
30th Anniversary Collection
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21 Golden Hits
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A Body of Work
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Five Decades Greatest Hits
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Rock Swings
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Rock Swings: Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival (DVD)
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