Hello, do we call you Mr Anka?
No, you call me Paul, like everybody else!
So what with your new album being swing covers of rock and pop songs and everything, do you think any genre can be 'swung'?
By and large, yes.
Even what 'the kids' are listening to, like hip hop and grime?
That would be a little more difficult I think. I’ve certainly looked at hip hop – I’ve never heard any grime – because as a musician you look at these things. I like it when it’s melodic, and there are some talented people expressing it. Is it my cup of tea in its totality? Probably not. I think that maybe because of the abundance of words per bar, it might be difficult. It’s something that I’d have to experiment with like I did the rock swing, and morph it song by song. It might be a little too far fetched because of the construction, the way that the music is. Is there one in there that can be done? Maybe, but I’d rather be working in the realm of where I am, with the songs of 80s and 90s, because they do have structure to them.
So what's your favourite song on your album?
'Everybody Hurts', 'It's A Sin', and oddly enough 'Teen Spirit' and 'It's My Life'. I like the emotional feeling that I get when I sing them, and whatever that unknown magical thing is that kicks you in the butt!
Indeed! Talking of butt-kicking, we loved that tape of you shouting at your band. Do you get that angry often?
The whole issue with that for me is that I’ve grown up in the industry and I’m a professional. You have to really care about what you’re doing and what’s going to the consumer, and I run a real tight ship. There’s crap out there and if you really want quality then you’ll buy Rock Swings, and that was what that whole tape was about. Just telling these guys stop fluffing off, and take this music seriously, because I take it seriously, for my fans and for myself.
Respect! OK then Paul, we know you're a friend to the stars, but can you tell us about the many legends you've met and 'hung out' with?
Like... Elvis?
I knew Elvis for a long time, he was someone in Vegas who I sat with and knew right down to his whole feeling of wanting to do ‘My Way’, which I wrote for Sinatra. And it was just a constant social thing, he was a good guy, and it was sad at the end, you know, he just couldn’t deal with getting older. All that stuff, very sad.
The Beatles?
Yeah, I knew the Beatles here. I met them in London and we worked at the same place in Paris, the Olympia, and I sat with them, you know, we weren’t a very media driven society back then. I used to go home to New York and tell everyone about this great band and they’d look at me like I was nuts. It was my agent that ultimately went over and brought them over to do the Ed Sullivan show in ’64. So yeah, I had a great time with them.
Bob Dylan?
Dylan I knew a little less, he was just on the periphery. He was always a guy that hid himself away, you know, I’d see him with friends at parties, but I never got to know him well.
Miles Davis?
I met him a couple of times, another out there eccentric man of the world. Not someone I would get real close to!
JFK?
Yeah, I saw him in Vegas when he used to come and visit Sinatra with his brother Bobby. Met him on a few social occasions, yeah, he was a good man.
Frank Sinatra?
I met him in ’58, when I became the youngest to ever work Vegas. And I worked with him and Sammy Davis and Dean Martin, and hung out with them, and knew them real well write up until I wrote ‘My Way’ and then real well after that. He was a big influence on my life. He’s a guy that if he took you to dinner, you’d take your passport. You never knew where you’d wind up.
One of the funniest things was, well first of all, we all used to hang out and have a steam room together, we’d all have our own bathrobes, and all kinds of parties used to go on. But one of the trips that I took with him down in Florida I remember, we went to the Fountain Blue Hotel and that was when they were always bugging his phones - and up in the suite there were holes all over the walls where he was ripping the phones out! But he was still pissed that night, he took all of the furniture and he threw it off the 12th floor, over the terrace and onto the beach! So the next morning people were on the beach and there was this furniture everywhere! When he drank and got mean, he was really mean.
Cor blimey! All very impressive. Thankyou, Paul Anka!
No Slashmusic, thank you.
