World-renowned singer-songwriter Paul Anka makes his highly anticipated return to Ruth Eckerd Hall! Born July 30, 1941, in Ottawa, Canada, into a close-knit family, Paul Anka didn’t waste time getting his life in music started. From an early age he sang in a choir, studied piano and honed his writing skills with journalism courses, even working as a cub reporter at the Ottawa Citizen. By 13, he had his own vocal group, the Bobbysoxers. Blinded by determination, he would take his mother’s car and drive to perform at every amateur night he could across the river in Quebec. Soon after, he won a trip to New York by winning a Campbell’s soup contest that required him to spend three months collecting soup can labels. After visiting the music hub of New York, it was there that his dream to make it as a singer composer was solidified. There was not a doubt in his young tenacious mind.
In 1956, he convinced his parents to let him travel to Los Angeles to visit his uncle, where he hitchhiked to a meeting with Modern Records that led to the release of Anka’s first single, Blau-Wile Deveest Fontaine. The inspiration for the song came from a book he was reading for a report he had to write for Fisher Park school by the former Governor General of Canada, John Buchan. Although it was not a hit, Anka kept plugging away. He went so far as to sneak into Fats Domino’s dressing room in Ottawa to meet him and his manager. In the dressing room, Fats Domino and Chuck Berry were sitting there and Anka sang his music to them. They told him to stay in school. When Anka returned to New York in 1957, he scored a meeting with Don Costa, the A&R representative for ABC-Paramount Records, playing him a batch of songs that included Diana. Costa was duly enthusiastic about the potential of the young singer and songwriter. The rapid and enormous success of Diana, his first number one hit, made him a star at the young age of 15.
His later achievements as a recording artist included the charted song, Hold Me ‘Til the Morning Comes, a hit duet with Peter Cetera in 1983, the Spanish language album Amigos in 1996, and Body of Work, a 1998 duets album that featured Frank Sinatra, Celine Dion, Tom Jones and daughter Anthea Anka. If this wasn’t enough, it was revealed upon its release in 2009, that Anka co-wrote Michael Jackson’s posthumous #1 worldwide hit, This Is It, which has further cemented his place upon the most prolific and versatile songwriters of any generation.
At 81 years old, Paul Anka continues to write and record. His latest two albums, Making Memories and Sessions, were released in 2021 and 2022 respectively. The albums featured new and never before recorded songs as well as new takes on old classics — notably Put Your Head On My Shoulder with Olivia Newton John, one of her last recorded songs, and My Way featuring Michael Buble and Andrea Bocelli.
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