Paul Anka on Tour
If anyone's earned the right to mount a touring revue of Frank Sinatra songs, it's Paul Anka. Not only was the Canadian crooner among a wave of pop phenoms vying for the title of "The Next Sinatra" in the late 1950s, he would go on to pen the lyrics to Ol' Blue Eyes' signature song, "My Way," in 1969. So to celebrate his 60th year in showbiz, Anka is paying tribute to the man who arguably made it all possible — both as a formative influence and as a career-defining collaborator. After debuting in 2018, The Anka Sings Sinatra tour extends into spring of 2020. But while the setlist is stacked with Sinatra standards, you'll also hear Anka delve into his own repertoire of classics, as well as his singular interpretations of songs by Elton John, Prince, Creedence Clearwater Revival and many more. As the man himself puts it, Anka Sings Sinatra is a night of "his songs, my songs — my way!"
Paul Anka in Concert
Though he first emerged as a singer in the Sinatra mold, Paul Anka was really the first Justin Bieber — a ‘50s-era prototype for the teen idol. Born in Ottawa, Anka was determined to become a pop star before he hit high school — and after pounding the music-industry pavement in L.A. and New York, he scored an international No. 1 smash with the breezy, brassy confection "Diana," released in 1957 on the eve of his 16th birthday. The hit streak would continue with charmingly self-deprecating ballads like "Lonely Boy" and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder." As his style of innocent, prom-dance pop was displaced by the harder-edged rock ‘n' roll sounds of the ‘60s, Anka also enjoyed a fruitful career as a composer, writing the theme song for The Tonight Show as well as major hits for Tom Jones ("She's a Lady") and Frank Sinatra ("My Way"). But even if his days as a chart-topping artist are behind him, Anka has managed to stay in the contemporary pop conversation. His 2005 comeback album, Rock Swings, gave grunge standards by Nirvana and Soundgarden the Vegas treatment, while his aborted ‘80s-era collaborations with Michael Jackson eventually saw the light of day in the late 2000s — and even earned Anka a songwriting credit on Drake's 2018 album Scorpion, which sampled the Anka/MJ co-write "Don't Matter to Me."
