Classic Songs, My Way

Amazon.com Paul Anka follows up 2005's Rock Swings, his popular collection of covers done classic Vegas ¬style, with another collection of unlikely pop and rock songs--also done classic Vegas ¬style. One of the most familiar tricks could be termed the reverse stunt: Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," for instance, is speeded up into a fingersnapping brassy strut. (On Rock Swings, Anka had famously done the exact opposite with "Smells Like Teen Spirit," slowing it down to a loungy pace.) But hey, if it's not broken! After all, Anka is in fine vocal form and he sure knows how to sing against the big-band arrangements. Once again, the best songs are the most unexpected, like the strutting take on the Killers' "Mr. Brightside," the triumphant read of Foreigner's "Waiting for a Girl Like You," which gradually builds up, the super-lush cover of Duran Duran's "Ordinary World," and the strutting "Walking in Memphis." Note that Anka actually picked from his own oeuvre for the albums's two duets: Michael Bublé joins his onetime mentor on 1958's "You Are My Destiny," while Bon Jovi helps out on "My Way" (a song Anka adapted from a French original)--which paradoxically is the least convincing track in the bunch. --Elisabeth Vincentelli More from Paul Anka 30th Anniversary Collection 21 Golden Hits A Body of Work Five Decades Greatest Hits Rock Swings Rock Swings: Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival (DVD) Product Description In conjunction with the celebration of his 50th year in show business Paul Anka has recorded new arrangements of some of pop music's most recognizable songs - Billy Joel's "I Go to Extremes," Bob Seger's "Against the Wind," Foreigner's "Waiting for a Girl Like You," Marc Cohen's "Wallking in Memphis" and more. This new CD also includes a Anka duet with one of rocks most famous voices, Jon Bon Jovi on one of the worlds most famous songs, Anka's "My Way." From the Artist "It's the most unique, gratifying part of my life," he says. "As years go by, I get different material and things happen that only embellishes what it is. The last ten years have been just the best for me and I'm not even there yet -- the flag's not come down. I get a lot out of it and there's a lot of substance to it," he adds. "I would never do it if I were mediocre or afraid or just went out there to take the money. We've all been to concerts where you sit there and the audience doesn't get it and the guy up there doesn't feel like it and he walks off. I don't kno