Paul Anka

Paul Albert Anka, born July 30, 1941, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is a singer, songwriter, and actor who holds both Canadian and American citizenship. His parents, Camelia (née Tannis) and Andrew Emile Anka Sr., were of Lebanese Christian descent, though his father emigrated from Damascus, Syria, and his mother from Lebanon. His father operated a restaurant called the Locanda. Anka's mother died when he was eighteen. He attended Fisher Park High School in Ottawa, where he sang as part of a vocal trio called the Bobby Soxers, and he briefly studied piano under Winifred Rees. He also sang with the St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral choir and studied music theory under Frederick Karam.

Anka recorded his first single, "I Confess," at age fourteen. In 1956, traveling to Manhattan with one hundred dollars provided by his uncle, he auditioned for Don Costa at ABC Records. The song that emerged from that session, "Diana," reached number one on both the Canadian and American music charts and established Anka as a major recording artist. He followed with four Top 20 entries in 1958, among them "It's Time to Cry," which peaked at number four, and "(All of a Sudden) My Heart Sings," which reached number fifteen. During this period he toured Britain and Australia alongside Buddy Holly and wrote "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" for Holly, who recorded it shortly before his death in 1959. Anka donated his composer's royalties from that song to Holly's widow.

As a songwriter, Anka produced work that extended well beyond his own recordings. He composed the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, reworked in 1962 from an earlier song he had written called "Toot Sweet." He wrote "Teddy," a Top 20 hit for Connie Francis in 1960, and "She's a Lady," one of Tom Jones's biggest hits. He wrote the English lyrics to the French song "Comme d'habitude," transforming it into "My Way," Frank Sinatra's signature recording, which has since been covered by numerous artists including Elvis Presley. In the 1960s, Anka also wrote the theme for the film The Longest Day and made a cameo appearance in it as a U.S. Army Ranger. He became one of the first pop singers to perform at Las Vegas casinos and appeared twice as himself in the NBC crime drama Dan Raven in 1960. In 1963, he purchased the rights to his ABC-Paramount catalog and re-recorded his earlier hits for RCA Victor.

Anka's Broadway career spanned from 1964 to 1975. He appeared in the musical What Makes Sammy Run? and starred in Paul Anka during that period. His stage work ran concurrently with a broader resurgence in his recording career. After more than a decade without a top twenty-five hit, he signed with United Artists and in 1974 recorded "(You're) Having My Baby" with Odia Coates, which reached number one. He and Coates followed with three additional Top 20 duets: "One Man Woman/One Woman Man" at number seven, "I Don't Like to Sleep Alone" at number eight, and "(I Believe) There's Nothing Stronger Than Our Love" at number fifteen. In 1975, he recorded a jingle for Kodak written by Bill Lane and Roger Nichols called "Times of Your Life," which he later expanded into a full song that peaked at number seven on the U.S. pop chart in 1976. His last Top 40 hit in the United States came in the summer of 1983 with "Hold Me 'Til the Mornin' Comes," which featured backing vocals from Peter Cetera and reached number two on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart.

Anka also built a significant career in Italy, collaborating with composer Ennio Morricone, singer-songwriter Lucio Battisti, and lyricist Mogol. He released nine singles through RCA Italiana, with "Ogni giorno" reaching number one in Italy in 1962. "Ogni volta," performed at the Sanremo Music Festival in 1964, sold more than one million copies in Italy and earned a gold disc. He returned to Sanremo in 1968 with "La farfalla impazzita," a Battisti-Mogol composition. In 2006, he recorded a new Italian-language version of "Diana" with Adriano Celentano, featuring guitarist Alex Britti, which reached number three.

Anka co-wrote three songs with Michael Jackson during a 1980 recording session: "This Is It," "Love Never Felt So Good," and "Don't Matter to Me." Jackson chose not to release them at the time, and the songs were later issued as posthumous hits in 2009, 2014, and 2018, respectively. Following a dispute over credit and royalties for "This Is It," the administrators of Jackson's estate granted Anka fifty percent of the copyright. His 1998 album A Body of Work featured collaborations with Celine Dion, Kenny G, Patti LaBelle, and Skyler Jett, marking his first new U.S. studio release since 1983. In 2005, he released Rock Swings, an album of big-band arrangements of contemporary rock songs, and was awarded a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto.