Paul Anka

Paul Anka, born in Ottawa, Canada on July 30, 1941, secured a recording contract in 1957 after playing A&R representative Don Costa a batch of songs that included Diana, a love-struck ballad written for a former babysitter. Diana sold over 20 million copies and made Anka a star at just fifteen years old, soon finding him touring the Cavalcade of Stars circuit alongside Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, and Chuck Berry. He followed with a string of hits including Lonely Boy, Put Your Head on My Shoulder, and Puppy Love. As musical tastes shifted with the British Invasion, Anka broadened his appeal into nightclubs and prolific songwriting for other artists, penning the lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s signature ballad My Way and Tom Jones’s She’s a Lady. His 1974 comeback single You’re Having My Baby returned him to the pop charts, and he has continued recording into his eighties, releasing the albums Making Memories and Sessions, the latter featuring a new recording of Put Your Head on My Shoulder with Olivia Newton-John, one of her final recordings, and a version of My Way featuring Michael Buble and Andrea Bocelli. In 2020, Anka appeared on the hit competition show The Masked Singer.