First Bill Shatner, Now Paul Anka, Can Robert Goulet Be Far Behind?

Paul Anka does it ‘my way,’ reworks rock, pop hits into swing
By Angela Pacienza
TORONTO (CP) — Some 50 years after he grabbed the public’s attention with the sugary teenybopper hit Diana, Paul Anka has found a clever way to stay fresh.
One of the few remaining lounge music pioneers, he’s releasing a collection of chart-topping hits from the ’80s and ’90s, reinterpreted into Anka’s Rat Pack-era swing.
The Ottawa-born singer says he wanted to make an album using “standards of today.”
Rock Swings may sound like a cash-grabbing gimmick — after all, he gives us jazzy, schmaltz-filled versions of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Van Halen’s Jump among others.
And, really, does world need another interpretation of Bon Jovi’s formulaic hair metal anthem It’s My Life or Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger?
But despite its kitschy origins, the disc is peppered with smart, big band arrangements of modern-day classics like Oasis’s Wonderwall, a beautiful version of Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven, and a few guilty pleasures like Spandau Ballet’s True. Anka sings the songs as though he’s sporting a tuxedo onstage at the Tropicana circa 1958.
In fact, today’s listeners could easily forget what the original sounded like — this is especially true on Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun and R.E.M.’s Everybody Hurts.
“I felt that it was due,” says the former teen idol whose hits include Puppy Love and Put Your Head On My Shoulder.
Coming off a job co-producing Michael Buble’s 2003 debut record, Anka, 64, thought the public would once again embrace the casino-style genre.
It seems all things Vegas are hip again thanks to television dramas like Las Vegas and CSI: Las Vegas, as well as reality TV’s The Casino.
“I realized that whole swing era is still fashionable,” he said over the line from his current home base of Los Angeles.
But with five decades of experience under his belt, Anka knew that regurgitating old standards like the signature smash hit My Way, which he penned and is now a karaoke staple, would hardly create the Vegas-sized splash he’s accustomed to.
“It’s been done before and who cares? I wasn’t going to do the same old trick because, you know, you wouldn’t even be on the phone with me now,” he says, oozing the suave that characterized his swinger’s era.
Anka’s far from being the first singer to dip into another time era for material.
William Shatner recently released a disc with a combination of covers and originals co-written by Ben Folds, but his speak-song style didn’t quite hit the mark. Pat Boone tried to do metal in 1997 with In A Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy. It was, at best, good for a laugh.
Song selection was key on Anka’s project, as the wrong track would have made the entire project sound hokey.
Anka said he started by collecting Billboard charts listing all the Top 10 groups and songs from the 1980s onward.
He then spent eight months combing through the material, a mountain of paper that filled three cardboard boxes, eliminating songs he didn’t find “palatable.”
“I went in and just experimented with hundreds and hundreds of songs to see what would fit my vision,” recalled Anka, who will be feted June 5 with a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame followed by the Order of Canada on the 10th.
“We would work ‘til six in the morning and play around. I was very careful about it because I didn’t want it to be a novelty record.”
He offers Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, arguably one of the biggest hits of the 80s, by way of example.
“I just couldn’t get the words Billie Jean out of my mouth,” says Anka. “It just didn’t work. I threw it out.”
Instead, he went with The Way You Make Me Feel, giving the bubble-gum pop ditty a finger-snapping tinge of jazz.
The project, he boasts, proves the ’80s and ’90s produced quality, lasting songs.
“We’re overlooking the standards of today,” he said.
“A good song is a good song. There’s a demographic of people who’ve embraced songs from the ’80s and ’90s, setting aside the assessment they’re disposable, as songs were in the ’50s.”

The track listing from Anka’s Rock Swing and the group that made the song famous:
It’s My Life — Bon Jovi
True — Spandau Ballet
Eye Of The Tiger — Survivor
Everybody Hurts — R.E.M.
Wonderwall — Oasis
Blackhole Sun — Soundgarden
It’s A Sin — Pet Shop Boys
Jump — Van Halen
Smells Like Teen Spirit — Nirvana
Hello — Lionel Richie
Eyes Without A Face — Billy Idol
Lovecats — The Cure
The Way You Make Me Feel — Michael Jackson
Tears In Heaven — Eric Clapton