THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

120-Frank Sinatra-My Way.

1969-Number 5 single.

Best Bit-At 3.13. ‘My Way’ is the most requested song by people to be played at their funerals, presumably it’s the Frank Sinatra version, and not the one by Sid Vicious.

‘My Way’ is also the title track of Frank Sinatra’s 1969 Album, and was the only single released from it, ‘My Way’ has since gone on to become one of Frank Sinatra’s (see also best songs 877-567-469 and 73) signature songs. Having spent a total of 75 consecutive weeks inside the UK top 40 between 1969-1971, it holds the record for the longest stay on the chart.

It was the Canadian born singer/songwriter Paul Anka who having heard the original French version called ‘Comme d’habitude’ sung by Claude Francois (1939-1978) while he was on holiday in the South of France, then flew to Paris to negotiate the rights to the song, and agreed to share royalty’s with the songs writers Claude Francois and Jacques Revaux. The original French recording which has absolutely nothing to do with Paul Anka’s re-written lyrics tells the tale of a couple who are falling out of love, and their marriage is coming to an end.

Paul Anka had Frank Sinatra in mind when he re-wrote the lyrics, he had been having dinner with Sinatra in Florida and ‘a couple of mob guys,’ during which Sinatra said,’I’m quitting the business, I’m sick of it, I’m getting the hell out.’ Anka’s lyrics tell of a man looking fondly back on a life he lived on his own terms. Of writing the lyrics to ‘My Way’ Paul Anka has said,’At one o’clock in the morning, I sat down at an old IBM electric typewriter and said, ‘If Frank were writing this, what would he say?’ And I started, metaphorically, ‘And now the end is near.’ I read a lot of periodicals, and I noticed everything was ‘my this’ and ‘my that’. We were in the ‘me generation’ and Frank became the guy for me to use to say that. I used words I would never use: ‘I ate it up and spit it out.’ But that’s the way he talked. I used to be around steam rooms with the Rat Pack guys, they liked to talk like Mob guys, even though they would have been scared of their own shadows.’

Paul Anka was born on July 30th, 1941, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, he became a ‘teen idol’ at the age of 16 when his song ‘Diana’ became an international hit, reaching Number 1 in Canada, and the UK, and Number 2 in America. He would go on to release 29 studio Albums between 1958-2013, and 93 singles between 1956-1996, with four of those topping the charts in his native Canada. Other very well known Paul Anka compositions include ‘Puppy Love,’ (Billboard Number 2, 1960) and UK Number 1 in 1972, when it was covered by Donny Osmond. Anka also had great success in the 1970’s when teaming up with the American singer Odia Coates (1941-1991) for three consecutive Billboard top 10 singles, including the 1974 chart topper ‘(You’re) Having My Baby.’)

‘My Way’ has been covered on numerous occasions by other artists over the years. In 1970 the Welsh singer Dorothy Squires (1915-1998) took her recording to Number 25 in the UK, with it charting at the same time as Sinatra’s version. In 1977 a live recording was posthumously released for Elvis Presley, (1935-1977) which peaked at Number 9, but the most famous, and controversial cover is by Sid Vicious (1957-1979) who recorded his version for the Sex Pistols (see also best songs 576-92 and 27) 1978 Album ‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle,’ with many new lyrics. Paul Anka has said that he was ‘Somewhat destabilised by the Sex Pistols version. It was kind of curious, but I felt he (Sid Vicious) was sincere about it.’

‘For what is a man, what has he got, If not himself, then he has naught. To say the things he truly feels, And not the words of one who kneels. The record shows I took the blows, And did it my way.’