Anka’s Aweigh

Steve Bornfeld

Friday, July 20, 2001 | 4:34 a.m.

His name is Paul Anka. He's a legendary singer-songwriter. But you knew that. And if you didn't know that, well, that's why God created websites.

Oh, all right. We'll spot you a few facts (we're just a bunch of marshmallows here at the Sun):

He's Canadian. He was a teen idol. He's about to turn 60. (You read that and aged about 20 years, didn't you?) He's in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He's written movie scores. He was nominated for an Oscar. He wrote Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" theme. He wrote his own hits. He wrote hits for others. Barbra Streisand, Buddy Holly, Tom Jones, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra sang them. (He ate up -- aka composed -- "My Way" and Sinatra spit it out.)

Will that hold you? Good. Oh, we forgot the hook: He's at the MGM Grand Thursday through Aug. 8.

Let's fuss no further over this.

Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Anka:

Sun: You just returned from a checkup. Forgive our, um, probing, but does everything check out?

Paul Anka: Everything came out clean. I went through some new machine. My organs looked like all of those organs I used to see in a butcher shop.

Sun: Interesting image, but let's shift from medical to musical. Watching your live show is like guzzling an energy drink You really sell it, pal. Some other performers seem to coast on the fumes of their fame. Why do you still perform in third gear?

PA: It depends on how serious you are toward integrity. When the Beatles came I realized what a drought is. And I made a decision that you've got to go out every night and give it your best because people are not stupid. Critics are not stupid. I work with that kind of benchmark. I don't know any other way whence I came.

Sun: Let's talk teen sensations. You were one. (And you're thinking about turning 60? You've got some nerve.) Now we're in the Age of Britney's Belly Button. What's changed?

PA: I came from a time when you learned how to fail. Today these kids don't know what it is. All they know is, "I can make $50 million and a guy will make the tracks in Germany and I'll learn how to dance, show my navel, I don't write the songs anyway and that'll be it." And if they fail, they're gone and it's "what's next?" When I talk to all these record executives I know from Sony and Warners, they say half of this music is not going to be around in eight months, nor will the acts. I get it. It's all sociologically rooted. I understand why it's there and some of it I respect because there's some musicality to it. And kids need their own stuff. But it won't hold.

Sun: You're no Gordon Gekko, but you're as skilled with dollars and cents as you are with music and lyrics. You own all the rights to your music, which makes you the Grand Pooh-bah in negotiating situations. How did that develop?

PA: I started when pop music was in its infancy. I was taken advantage of, everything you read about that can happen, happened. I felt that if I were to stay in the business, and if I learned some business acumen from good people around me, that would allow me to survive or fail, but at least by my own doing. There are too many bad agents and managers around, and I'm not the kind of personality who wants to be in the hands of the wrong person.

Sun: No one confuses you with Eminem, either. He's profane and inflammatory in his songs. You're desperately in love in yours. So how do you view the hubbub in the '70s over "Having My Baby."

PA: Can you imagine "Having My Baby" today? It would be a shrinking violet.

Sun: That's where we were headed with this. Feminists branded you with a scarlet "S" -- for "sexist."

PA: Now the whole thing is (Jennifer Lopez) using the "N" word. Back in the '70s people thought I was crazy for taking that flak over "Having My Baby," but I never got on a soapbox to defend it. That was an honest song about a man and his wife. I said, "Wait till you see what's yet to come. You will see profanity." And I got calls saying, "Are you kidding?"

Sun: Let's examine the irony. "Having My Baby" triggered sexism charges, but you've criticized the hit you wrote for Tom Jones, "She's a Lady," because it's "chauvinistic."

PA: It's like a guy who writes a script. When I wrote for Tom -- the same as when I wrote for Sinatra -- you put yourself in their shoes. The words I used for Sinatra were Sinatra. Tom had that whole sex thing going, totally into that chauvinistic thing, and you write it. You can't write for yourself at those times.

Sun: Tell us about your career launcher, "Diana" -- which could have been subtitled "How I Pined for the Baby Sitter."

PA: I had a mad crush on her. This girl was, in '50s terms, more sophisticated, had gone out with older guys and was probably three years older, which was infinity back then. There was no way for me, so I wrote this song for her. When it was a hit, Time magazine did a piece on us and brought us together. She loved the attention.

Sun: You composed Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" theme, which is permanently encoded in our national DNA. It was as much a part of that institution as Doc and Ed and "How hot was it?" Do you miss hearing it?

PA: It put my kids through school and I had a helluva ride. There's nothing that competes with that. I spoke to Jay (Leno), but I understood that they needed a change. You couldn't have any carryover. (For Carson), I just wrote something simple and catchy, and I defy you to sing the one they're using now.

Sun: With all the hits you've composed -- for yourself and others -- you and the charts were as inseparable as President Bush and malaprops. Do you ever wish you had recorded all your songs and ran them up the charts yourself?

PA: You know, I don't. I learned a long time ago that there's so many cycles in our business and you can't be there all the time. With that whole teenage thing, I realized you're the flavor of the year. I wasn't raised as a pretty boy. I wrote my own stuff, so I was separate from the pack. When the Beatles hit I realized I was off the radio like hundreds of others, so the writer came first. When I wrote "My Way" in my 20s, it wasn't for me. As much as I'd lived, Sinatra was the guy. When I did the theme to "The Longest Day" and got nominated for an Academy Award, I was a kid. Same with the "Tonight Show" theme. And it gave me a different kind of cache with the public. I always heard it: "It's not the looks, it's the talent."