MY WAY SONG REQUESTED BY A VIEWER

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Colin Games

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Published on December 7, 2023 5:17:32 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CosWt26-XvE

Duration: 4:30

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My Way this is my version of a classic Frank Sinartra song which was requested by one of my viewers.

My Way is a song popularized in 1969 by Frank Sinatra set to the music of the French song "Comme d'habitude" composed by Jacques Revaux with lyrics by Gilles Thibaut and Claude François and first performed in 1967 by Claude François.

The English lyrics of the song were written by Paul Anka and are unrelated to the original French song.

The song was a success for a variety of performers including Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Sid Vicious. Sinatra's version of "My Way" spent 75 weeks in the UK Top 40, which is 3rd place all-time.

Background
In 1967, Jacques Revaux wrote a ballad named "For Me", with English lyrics about a couple falling out of love. According to Revaux, the demo was then sent to Petula Clark, Dalida, and Claude François, to no avail. Revaux rejected a version by Hervé Villard, the singer of the international hit Capri c'est fini and reworked the track into Comme d'habitude ("As usual") with the help of Claude François. It was released in November 1967 and was at the top of the French pop chart for one week in February 1968.

Paul Anka heard the French original, while on holiday in the south of France. He flew to Paris to negotiate the rights to the song. He acquired adaptation, recording, and publishing rights for the nominal but 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.