My Way (song)
| "My Way" | |
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| Single by Frank Sinatra | |
| from the album My Way | |
| B-side | "Blue Lace" |
| Released | 1969 |
| Recorded | December 30, 1968, Los Angeles |
| Genre | Traditional pop |
| Length | 4:35 |
| Label | Reprise |
| Writer(s) | Paul Anka and Claude François |
| Producer(s) | Sonny Burke |
| "My Way" | ||||
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| Single by Elvis Presley | ||||
| from the album Elvis in Concert | ||||
| B-side | "Pledging My Love" | |||
| Released | October 3, 1977 | |||
| Format | 7" single | |||
| Recorded | June 21, 1977 | |||
| Label | RCA | |||
| Writer(s) | Paul Anka and Claude François | |||
| Elvis Presley singles chronology | ||||
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| "My Way" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Sid Vicious | |
| from the album The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle | |
| Released | 1978 |
| Recorded | January–August 1978 |
| Genre | Punk rock |
| Length | 4:06 |
| Label | Virgin Records |
| Writer(s) | Paul Anka, Sid Vicious (A few lines) |
| Producer(s) | Sex Pistols |
"My Way" is a song popularized in 1969 by Frank Sinatra. Its lyrics were written by Paul Anka and set to the music of the French song "Comme d'habitude" co-composed and co-written (with Jacques Revaux), and performed in 1967 by Claude François. Anka's English lyrics are unrelated to the original French song. The song was a success for a variety of performers including Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and the Sex Pistols. Sinatra's version of "My Way" spent 75 weeks in the UK Top 40, a record which still stands.
Paul Anka heard the original 1967 French pop song, Comme d'habitude (As Usual) performed by Claude François, while on holiday in the south of France. He flew to Paris to negotiate the rights to the song. In a 2007 interview, he said, "I thought it was a shitty record, but there was something in it." He acquired adaptation, recording, and publishing rights for the mere nominal or formal consideration of one dollar, subject to the provision that the melody's composers would retain their original share of royalty rights with respect to whatever versions Anka or his designates created or produced. Some time later, Anka had a dinner in Florida with Frank Sinatra and "a couple of Mob guys" during which Sinatra said "I'm quitting the business. I'm sick of it; I'm getting the hell out."
Back in New York, Anka re-wrote the original French song for Sinatra, subtly altering the melodic structure and changing the lyrics:
"At one o'clock in the morning, I sat down at an old IBM electric typewriter and said, 'If Frank were writing this, what would he say?' And I started, metaphorically, 'And now the end is near.' I read a lot of periodicals, and I noticed everything was 'my this' and 'my that'. We were in the 'me generation' and Frank became the guy for me to use to say that. I used words I would never use: 'I ate it up and spit it out.' But that's the way he talked. I used to be around steam rooms with the Rat Pack guys – they liked to talk like Mob guys, even though they would have been scared of their own shadows."
Anka finished the song at 5 in the morning. "I called Frank up in Nevada – he was at Caesar's Palace – and said, 'I've got something really special for you.'" Anka claimed, "When my record company caught wind of it, they were very pissed that I didn't keep it for myself. I said, 'Hey, I can write it, but I'm not the guy to sing it.' It was for Frank, no one else." Despite this, Anka would later record the song in 1969 (very shortly after Sinatra's recording was released). Anka recorded it four other times as well: in 1996 (as a duet with Gabriel Byrne, performed in the movie Mad Dog Time), in 1998 in Spanish as (a Mi Manera) (duet with Julio Iglesias), in 2007 (as a duet with Jon Bon Jovi) and in 2013 (as duet with Garou).
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