I haven’t heard Paul Anka for over thirty-five years and didn’t remember him till Nidhi brought him up last night. Anka is the original Canadian superstar, who was charting worldwide, decades before Bryan, Buble or Bieber (sorry, that’s weirdly alliterative) were even a glint in their dad’s eyes. He is way underrated for the depth of talent he has – he is an amazing songwriter and composer. Paul Anka has vocal cords that have to have come from God’s special reserve stock marked “for romantic ballads only”. And just to give him a fault to offset all that, God gave him a bit of a weird old-fashioned non-PC approach towards the women he sang about. It ensured he never became a global supernova like some of the people who sang the songs he wrote.

He recorded his first hit at 16 – “Diana” ( a Force’s Request staple),  wrote what became Tom Jone’s most famous hit “She’s a Lady” (a Force’s Request staple), wrote for Buddy Holly& Connie Francis and to cap it off, wrote the lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s signature song “My Way” ( a Forc…. I’m sure you get the idea)! 

Over the years I heard it on the radio so many, many times. It paints a picture of passionate, romantic love and is Anka’s best song by far. Girls at school used to have this on their mixtapes without exception. There were some other songs on that album that became ‘A Date With You’ staples – “Love’s a Lonely Song”, “I Gave A Little And I Lost a Lost”, “How Can Anything Be Beautiful (After You)”. And, for some reason his song “Papa” always gives me a catch in my throat. I just heard it after maybe 35 years and I’m suddenly missing my Dad so much.

On the other hand, his other songs (Having My Baby, One Man Woman/One Woman Man) are a bit weird and if he’d released them today, he probably would have been taken out and shot. Poor guy has been sheepishly apologising for these songs for years. Maybe it’s ok that we’ve ever so gently forgotten these songs.

“Bring The Wine” though is a winner!