MUSIC

The Houston Symphony presents Paul Anka, in Jones Hall Thursday, October 21, 2010, at 7:30pm.

Paul Anka is one of history’s most prolific and successful songwriters. His songs have been performed by some of the greatest names in entertainment history, including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Barbra Streisand. Anka will take the Jones Hall stage to perform all his hits, such as “Diana,” “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” and “My Way.”

Anka was born July 30, 1941 in Ottawa, Canada's capitol. His family-parents Andy and Camelia Anka, and younger siblings Mariam and Andy, Jr.---was very close, much like Ottawa's nascent but tight-knit Lebanese community to which they belonged. One of the community's meeting spots in the '50s was the family's two-storey restaurant and lounge, the Locanda downtown. At 13, Anka, who wanted to be a singer, and a songwriter, would promise visiting pop acts, free meals at the restaurant.

"I knew what I wanted, and I was very cocky," he recalls. "I wasn't talking about the same things as the kids I grew up with. I talked about singing, being in show business, and leaving Ottawa."

His formal music studies were brief: piano with Winnifred Rees and theory with Frederick Karam in whose St. Elijah Syrian Orthodox Church choir he sang. "I got into music after being forced to take shorthand at high school," he recalls. "After the first period, I knew that was out. So I asked to be put in the music class. There I played drums, trumpet and piano and started to get a knowledge of music."

At 13, Anka sang anywhere he had an audience. He put together a vocal group called the Bobbysoxers that performed locally, including at a local topless nightclub. "I was too young to be in the club," he laughs. "They made me stay in the dressing room when I wasn't singing."

He'd also borrow his mother's car--without her permission and before he had a license--to drive to nearby nightclubs that had amateur nights which he usually won. His parents discovered his nocturnal sojourns after the vehicle, an Austin Healy, broke down on the city's Champlain Bridge. "I kept going in first gear, and I put the piston rod through the hood," laughs Anka

Despite his antics, his parents were supportive of his showbiz goals. "They were great parents," says Anka. "They gave me stability in an industry where I needed it. My mother was my ally. She cleared the way when it was rough with my dad. He wanted me in a legitimate business. Show business then wasn't legitimate."

When Anka heard that Campbell's soup was giving away a trip to New York to the person who could collect the most soup can labels, he collected labels for three months, and won the contest. He was so taken by New York he vowed to return.

In the summer of 1956, his parents allowed him to travel by himself to Los Angeles to visit his Uncle Maurice. Anka began working at the Civic Playhouse selling candy bars during intermission.

Each day he would leaf through the telephone book and call record companies seeking an audition. One day at Wallich's Music City at the corner of Sunset and Vine, Anka was listening to "Stranded in the Jungle" by the Cadets. He noticed on the record label that Modern Records had offices in nearby Culver City.

He convinced his uncle to drive him to Modern. The label's A&R head Ernie Freeman, a veteran of Los Angeles' jazz scene, then listened to his song "Blau-Wile Deveest Fontaine," inspired by the African village in John Buchan's novel "PrestorJohn, and signed him, making Anka the only white act in the company.

Modern, and its subsidiary label RPM, were operated Saul Bihari, and his brothers Jules and Joe. Their roster included such blues performers as B.B. King, Roscoe Gordon, Elmore James, Lightnin' Hopkins, and John Lee Hooker; and the R&B vocal groups the Cadets, Marvin and Johnny, the Jacks, and the Teen Queens.

"Blau-Wile Deveest Fontaine" was released on RPM in 1956. "The back-up singers were the Cadets," Anka recalls. "I could not believe what was happening to me."

Anka returned to Ottawa, confident that stardom was imminent. It wasn't. Despite pioneering R&B disc jockey George "Hound Dog" Lorenz trying to break it in Buffalo, the record stiffed. However, Anka did get to appear nationally on CBC-TV's "Pick the Stars" and "Cross-Canada Hit Parade"

Back home, Anka was still determined to make it in the record business. While he kept writing songs, his parents insisted he consider a more practical career. He took journalism courses, and worked briefly at the Ottawa Citizen.

Whenever a rock and roll show came through Ottawa, Anka was there, trying to get backstage to meet his idols. This included a rock n' roll revue at the Ottawa Coliseum featuring Fats Domino, the Platters, Chuck Berry (who was inspired to write "Sweet Little Sixteen" after watching an Ottawa fan) and Clyde McPhatter. Anka snuck into Domino's dressing room and had him autograph a white-sleeved jacket. New York-based manager/booker Irving Feld, however, told him to scram. Anka left but insisted that Feld take down his name "to hire him for one of his shows one day."

At 16, Anka returned to New York City, carrying with him "Diana," a song written about his crush on an older high school friend. He stayed with the Rover Boys-sleeping in the bathtub of their suite at the President Hotel--and eventually met with Don Costa, then handling A&R at ABC-Paramount Records.

"A disc jockey in Toronto sent ABC a lead sheet on 'Diana,'" recalled Costa in 1975. "There wasn't even a demo with it. I read it over-and it looked interesting. So we sent for a demo. Paul was so crazy that when we sent for the demo, he came down from Ottawa. He floated around the city waiting for an appointment, and one day we sat down and played a bunch of his songs."

Anka played his songs on piano for Costa, including "Diana." Costa was so impressed that he called in other label executives. They all agreed Anka had talent. Within the week, Andy Anka arrived to sign a recording contract on his son's behalf.

That fateful New York meeting changed Anka's life forever. "Diana" became his first single for ABC- Paramount. Released in 1957, it sold over 10 million copies, and launched Anka's career as an international teen idol.

"Don Costa was responsible for my life evolving into the life I have today," says Anka. "He was a true genius, and my musical mentor."

Anka soon established himself as a successful artist and songwriter, penning his Top 10 U.S. hits "You Are My Destiny," "Lonely Boy," "Put Your Head On My Shoulder," "Puppy Love," "My Home Town," and "Dance on Little Girl." "He just couldn't write a bad song," Costa recalled in 1975.

"I had this talent for writing teenage songs," Anka explains. "I was a lonely boy, and I'd see these lonely boys at all these record hops. Do you know how many lonely boys are out there, sitting in their bedrooms at night, thinking about the girl who would not go to the prom with them? Put your head on my shoulder--that was your objective that weekend. To get her to get the head on the shoulder, maybe get a kiss. All that I understood."

During the '50s, Anka appeared frequently on Dick Clark's ABC-TV "American Bandstand" show; and toured in talent package shows throughout North America promoted by Feld (who now managed him) with Chuck Berry, the Drifters, Frankie Lymon, Laverne Baker, Clyde McPhatter, the Spaniels, the Everly Brothers, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly and The Crickets.

"I have a strong feeling for those years because we were really pioneers," says Anka. "We had to fight for everything we could get. The attitude then was what we were doing wasn't going to last. The media had not embraced rock and roll. Madison Avenue had not embraced it."

In 1959, Anka was part of the ill-fated "Winter Dance Party" tour along with Buddy Holly, J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, Ritchie Valens, Dion and the Belmonts, and others. On February 3, shortly after a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Holly, Richardson and Valens boarded a small aircraft chartered to take them to their next performance. Soon after take-off, the plane crashed killing all aboard.

A few months earlier, on Oct. 21, 1958, Anka had been at the New York session in which Holly had recorded his song "It Doesn't Matter Anymore." "The success of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' gave me a broader parameter of credibility as a writer," recalls Anka. "Buddy wanted to do something like I did with 'You Are My Destiny' with the violins. So I wrote 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore'."

By this time, Anka had already begun to change his style and image to appeal to nightclub audiences. In 1959, he debuted at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.

A year later, at 20, he became the youngest performer to headline the Copacabana in New York.

In 1962, Anka left ABC-Paramount, a departure that sent shock waves through the music industry. In leaving ABC-Paramount, Anka purchased his masters and publishing-an unheard of feat in those days. It set him back $250, 000. He signed a landmark deal with RCA Victor whereby he produced his own finished masters through his own Camy Productions for release on RCA.

"That was all I had in the bank," says Anka. "I felt strongly about my future."

Anka also set up his publishing company Spanka Music Corp., originally run by his father, which became heavily involved in the international licensing of hit songs from France, Italy and other countries. "I was in business. I had a single out there. I even had the James Brown catalog in Europe."

At RCA, he attempted to become a mainstream pop singer but only had handful of mid-chart hits including "Love Me Warm And Tender," "A Steel Guitar And A Glass of Wine," and "Eso Beso."

However, he appeared in several films, most notably in the 1962 war drama "The Longest Day" in which he wrote the theme song for and received an Oscar nomination. In 1962, when Johnny Carson made his debut as host of NBC-TV's "The Tonight Show," Anka's contributed one of most recognized theme songs in television history.

By the mid '60s, the pop culture tidal wave caused by the Beatles wiped Anka and other teen singers off the pop charts. Suddenly, everyone wanted British accents, long hair, groups. Most artists of the 1950s crashed and burned because they did not diversify.

"I first saw the Beatles at the Olympia Theatre in Paris (in 1964)," says Anka. "I brought their records back, and my agent Norm Weiss [at General Artists Corp.] then brought them to the U.S. Did I think they were going wipe everybody here off the charts? No. However, they wiped us all off."

Anka, however, had enough credentials built up to survive. Okay, he wasn't topping the charts anymore in the U.S. but he was working Las Vegas for three weeks at a time, and hanging out with Frank Sinatra and Rat Pack (that included Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford) while earning more money than when he had hits.

"Bobby Darin and I idolized Frank Sinatra and Rat Pack," recalls Anka. "All we knew was to look up to them. There was nobody else to follow. Ultimately, others didn't penetrate the nightclub scene as Bobby and I did. That where we got our (performing) chops."

Anka also focused on his songwriting, and spent more time in Europe and Asia where his appeal never waned. He realized times would change. Despite tempting offers, he refused to mine the secure predictable lode of fame on the oldies' circuit.

"My whole thing was that I was the writer and the producer," he says. "I was constantly developing my craft. I had a sense of the business, of where to go, and what to do and I continued to challenge myself."

In 1963, Anka spent considerable time in France, England and Italy. His song "Ogni Volta," was a hit in Italy in 1964, selling four million copies, and winning the San Remo Song Festival. It was the first multi-million seller in Italian history.

What ultimately turned Anka's career around in North America was penning "My Way" for Sinatra in 1969, as well as "She's A Lady" for Tom Jones in 1971, the same year Anka sold Spanka Music to MAM, owned by Jones' manager/producer Gordon Mills who also handled Engelbert Humperdinck. "I finished 'She's A Lady' on a plane returning from London," Anka recalls.

During a visit to Paris in 1968, Anka had heard Claude Francois' "Come d'Habitude" on the radio. After he secured rights to the song, co-written by Francois, Gillis Thibault, and Jacques Revaux, Anka rewrote it as "My Way," a song so lyrically powerful that it was embraced by Frank Sinatra as his signature song, as well as by Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Nina Simone, Brook Benton, Nina Hagen, the Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious and hundreds of others.

A few weeks after returning from France, Anka began listening to a piano demo he'd made of the song in his New York apartment. After midnight, and during a thunder storm, he began to write lyrics on his Selectric typewriter. He recalls, "I thought, 'What would Frank say if he was writing this?' I kept playing it at the piano, and eventually went, 'And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain.' As soon as I wrote the title, I knew I had it. I finished the song at 5 a.m. I called Don Costa (then Sinatra's musical director) and said 'Don, I think I've got something.'

When Sinatra heard the song, he immediately wanted to record it. The track was recorded in two takes, and under a half-hour. "They called me in New York, and played the recording over the speakers," recalls Anka. "I started crying. It was the turning point of my career."

In the 70's, Anka had another wave of chart-topping hits in the U.S. starting with "(You're) Having My Baby," the sentimental song about the impending joys of fatherhood which went to #1 on Billboard. It was followed by "One Man Woman, One Woman Man," (with Odia Coates), "I Don't Like to Sleep Alone," "(I Believe) There's Nothing Stronger than Our Love," and "Times of Your Life."

Anka's chart success held through the '80s with "Hold Me 'Til The Morning Comes," a duet with Peter Cetera in 1983. It was also around this time, Anka went into the studio with Michael Jackson and co-wrote several songs with him, one of which resulted in the #1 hit, This is It, which was released after Michael Jackson?s untimely and gravely unfortunate passing. Among Anka?s later releases were the 1996 Spanish-language album "Amigos"; "Body of Work" in 1998, featuring duets with Celine Dion, Patti LaBelle, Tom Jones, Anthea Anka, and Frank Sinatra; and "Anka Live 2000," recorded during a worldwide tour.

Beside Anka having five grown daughters, he is blessed with six young grandchildren (with one on the way) and a son Ethan.

Artists:
Paul Anka
The Houston Symphony does not appear on this program.