Paul Anka

Paul Anka (1941) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor. Anka became famous in the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s with hit songs like 'Diana' (1957), 'Lonely Boy' (1959), 'Put Your Head on My Shoulder' (1959), and '(You're) Having My Baby' (1974). He wrote the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the English lyrics for Frank Sinatra's signature song, 'My Way' (1969). He also appeared in such films as The Longest Day (1962).


Vintage postcard.


Dutch postcard by Internationale Filmpers (I.F.P.), Amsterdam, no. WPS 117.


West-German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. H 112.

Puppy love

Paul Albert Anka was born in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1941. His parents, Camelia and Andy Anka owned a restaurant called the Locanda, that was popular with local entertainers. He taught himself to play guitar and piano as a teen and formed a vocal group called the Bobbysoxers with friends that performed locally in Ottawa.

Paul Anka recorded his first single, 'I Confess' when he was 14. In 1957 he went to New York City where he auditioned for producer Don Costa at ABC. He sang the original song 'Diana' (1957), which he wrote when he was 15 for his first love, Diana Ayoub, the 18-year-old babysitter of his younger brother and sister. He was quickly offered a recording contract, and 'Diana' rocketed to #1 on the Canadian and U.S. music charts. With sales of more than 20 million copies, 'Diana' is one of the best-selling singles ever by a Canadian recording artist.

He followed up with four songs that made it into the Top 20 in 1958, including 'It's Time to Cry', which hit #4. Only 17, he was one of the biggest teen idols of the time. He toured Britain, then Australia with Buddy Holly. Anka wrote for him 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore', which Holly recorded just before he died in 1959. Anka's next hit 'Puppy Love' (1960) was inspired by his girlfriend Annette Funicello.

Paul Anka hit the Italian market with 'Summer's Gone' in 1960. It was released as 'Dove Sei'. The record got immediate success, reaching #4 on Italian hit lists. His top hit was 'Ogni Giorno' which scored #1 in 1962, followed by 'Piangerò per te' and 'Ogni Volta', which reached both #2, in 1963 and 1964.

'Ogni volta' (Every Time) was sung by Anka during the Festival di Sanremo of 1964 and then sold more than one million copies in Italy alone. Anka's talent also included the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, which was reworked in 1962 from a song Anka wrote earlier.


Dutch postcard, no. 162.


Vintage postcard.


Dutch postcard by Int. Filmpers, Amsterdam (I.F.P.), no. 3350. Caption: Read Song Parade.

The Longest Day

Like most North American recording artists, Paul Anka saw his career stalled by the British Invasion. By the late 1960s, his career focused on adult contemporary and big-band standards, played regularly in Las Vegas. He composed Tom Jones' biggest hit record, 'She's a Lady' (1971) and wrote the English lyrics to Frank Sinatra's signature song 'My Way' (1969). It was originally the French song 'Comme d'habitude'. 'My Way' has been covered by many artists including Elvis Presley.

Anka began acting in motion pictures as well as writing songs for them, most notably the theme for the hit film The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, 1962). According to IMDb, "he was quite believable as a nervous hyper young soldier". For his film work, he wrote and recorded also one of his greatest hits, 'Lonely Boy' (1959) which he wrote for his mother, who died of diabetes. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he starred in such teen exploitation films as Girls Town (Charles F. Haas, 1959) starring Mamie Van Doren and Look in Any Window (William Alland, 1961), in which he played a peeping tom.

Paul Anka later played a yacht broker in Captain Ron (Thom Eberhardt, 1992) starring Kurt Russell and Martin Short and an Elvis-hating casino pit manager in 3000 Miles to Graceland (Demian Lichtenstein, 2001) starring Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner. He also made several appearances on the TV series Las Vegas (2003-2008) with James Caan.

After more than ten years without a top 25 hit record, Paul Anka teamed up in 1974 with Odia Coates to record the #1 hit, '(You're) Having My Baby'. The two would record two more duets that made it into the Top 10, 'One Man Woman/One Woman Man' (#7) and 'I Don't Like to Sleep Alone' (#8). In 1983, he co-wrote the song 'I Never Heard' with Michael Jackson. It was retitled and released in 2009 under the name 'This Is It'. An additional song that Jackson co-wrote with Anka from this 1983 session, 'Love Never Felt So Good', was since discovered and was released on Jackson's posthumous album 'Xscape' in 2014. The song was also released by Johnny Mathis in 1984. To date, Paul has recorded 125 albums -including songs in Japanese, German, Spanish, French, and Italian - and sold more than 15 million worldwide.

Paul Anka became a naturalised US citizen in 1990. Anka was married to Anne de Zogheb, the daughter of a Lebanese diplomat, Charles de Zogheb, from 1963, until 2001. They have five daughters. In 2008, Anka married his personal trainer, Anna Åberg, in Sardinia. They divorced in 2010 and share custody of their son, Ethan. An autobiography, 'My Way' (co-written with David Dalton), was published in 2013. In October 2016, Anka married Lisa Pemberton in Beverly Hills, California. They divorced in 2020. Anka is the father-in-law of actor/director Jason Bateman, who married Paul's daughter, Amanda Anka in 2001.


Big Dutch card, no. 4919. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 3838. Caption: Read Jukebox monthly.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris. Photo: Vallois.

Source: Paul Onkenhout and John Schoorl (De Volkskrant -Dutch), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia and IMDb.