One of Canada’s most successful exports has come home for a special occasion.
Singer-songwriter Paul Anka, who was born in Ottawa and made it big across the globe, returned to his native country for the world premiere of the documentary Paul Anka: His Way. The film directed by John Maggio explores an astonishing career that began when Anka was just a teenager. Even at that young age he was performing material he had written himself, like the song ‘Diana,’ his first to hit no. 1 on the music charts.
“I left home at 15, a hundred bucks in my pocket, went to New York, got very lucky with ‘Diana,’” Anka said as he stopped by Deadline’s Toronto Studio. “And the dream has continued, and here I am back home again, where I always like to get back to because it’s a special place.”
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In the documentary, Anka recounts his emergence as a teen idol, and later becoming a sort of mascot to the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra called him “the kid”). He experimented a bit with acting – appearing in the 1962 film The Longest Day – for which he wrote and performed the hit song “Lonely Boy.” But songwriting would always be his bread and butter – both music he recorded like “Having My Baby” and songs he wrote for others, like “She’s a Lady,” memorably belted out by Tom Jones.
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“Paul is one of the most successful music artists in history. His songs have been recorded by every major legend of the 20th and 21st century,” Maggio said. “[His] drive, I think, comes from having been born in Canada and moved to New York and had an incredible work ethic. That blend of innate talent and ability to write melody and lyric — that comes from somewhere else; we don’t know. But the drive I think is from the fact that he was born here [in Canada], came to America — as he says in the film, ‘the big elephant in the room,’ that was America. He wanted to come down and conquer it, and he’s been doing it for many decades.”
“His Way,” the film’s subtitle, of course refers to the famous song Anka wrote for Sinatra. He had bought the rights to a French tune called “Comme d’habitude,” and learning that his friend, Ol’ Blue Eyes, intended to retire, came up with those poignant lyrics that began: “And now, the end is near/And so I face the final curtain…”
“When I sat and wrote ‘My Way,’ which took five hours, the words… I was motivated by Sinatra because he was quitting,” Anka explained. He described songwriting as something almost outside of his control, a connection to the divine. “A lot of the guys that I know that are writers, sometimes they don’t know where the hell it’s coming from… You work at your craft. You try to improve as you go along, but there’s something spiritual. There’s something up there that’s happening when you’re doing that.”
At a young age, Anka became a popular performer in Las Vegas. Whether on the Strip or in clubs from New York to Chicago and elsewhere, he came into close contact with organized crime.
“They ran the music business; they ran the nightclubs. So, you had no choice but to work for them,” he said. “Once you got in there and they liked you… You’re making money for them, so they’re not going to touch you. Nobody muscled me. I was too young. I mean, they were scratching their head, what the hell I was doing there anyway? [An] 18-year-old in Vegas and all of that. But working for them, I must tell you, was an absolute experience.”
Paul Anka: His Way is an acquisition title at TIFF; distribution plans are pending.
“My hopes are that anybody that sees the film is going to fall in love with it,” Maggio said. “There are all these gee whiz moments… like you can’t believe the career that Paul’s had and the legends he’s been around and worked with. My hope is that we premiere here, and we generate some good buzz. And I have no doubt that we’ll be on streamers and in theaters sometime soon.”
The documentary shows how, at 83, Anka still loves to perform and has maintained the strength of his voice, unlike many singers who reach that age. He’s also been embraced by the TikTok generation; recording tributes to his song “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” has become a particular delight of many young social media users. For Anka’s thoughts on that, plus writing the theme to The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and more, watch the video above.