I’m not the biggest Paul Anka fan in the world. His music is…fine. He’s a talented singer, and his body of work over the years speaks for itself. It’s just not for me. However, I am a fan of any and all music documentaries, and Paul Anka: His Way, which is available for those of us with an HBO Max subscription, is a good one. It’s especially inspiring because even now, in 2025, Paul Anka is still touring and putting on great shows for his legions of fans. We should all be so lucky.
His Career Is Seven Decades Long And Counting
Anka’s first #1 in the US was “Diana” in 1957. We’re almost 70 years later, and Anka has managed to stay relevant in pop music. In fact, he co-wrote “Don't Matter to Me” with Michael Jackson in 1980, which became a hit in 2018. He was a hit machine in his prime. Even songs we don’t associate with him, or, at least, I don’t, have become staples of popular music, like “My Way,” of course.
Anka wrote the song for Frank Sinatra in 1968, and it quickly became Sinatra’s signature hit. It’s been covered many, many times over the years. That came after Anka had a slew of hits on his own, staples of the American (Anka is Canadian, for the record), like “Lonely Boy,” “Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” and “Puppy Love.”
He had later hits too, like the #1 single “(You're) Having My Baby” in 1974. Even if you’re not a huge fan of the music, you have to respect the success and longevity. It's that second part that got me thinking.
As I Get Older, It’s Harder To Be Inspired. But This Did It
When you’re a teenager, the whole world can be inspiring. As most of us age, we get a little more hardened to life and, as a result, we’re less likely to be inspired. At least, that’s what I’ve found in my life. It’s not that I’ve shut off everything, but as I approach a milestone birthday (which I’m not going to reveal), I do think about my mortality more often. That’s why seeing a documentary like His Way, and seeing Anka still doing his thing well into his 80s, is good for me.
Anka is vibrant and full of life. A guy who first came to fame as a teenager in the 1950s still has a bit of a teenage glow about him. He’s on the road most of the year, with the documentary showing him singing around the world, and he talks about how there is a drive in him to just keep going. Now, there may be some pathos there that many performers have, the one that says to them, “I need to hear that audience applause,” but I don’t know. Regardless of the motivation, it works. He clearly keeps Anka young at heart.
My musical heroes are classic rock bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and the Grateful Dead. They are the artists I grew up with in the ‘80s and ‘90s, like Prince, The Talking Heads, and U2. They aren’t crooners from the ‘50s like Paul Anka, yet I found his story to be every bit as inspiring as the one told in another of my favorite music documentaries this year, Becoming Led Zeppelin (available with a Netflix subscription). Who would have thought?
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