Frank Sinatra "My Way" performed by Steve Bone day 228 of the jazz standard challenge.

"My Way" is an English version of a French song. The English lyrics were written by Paul Anka and popularized by Frank Sinatra on his 1969 album My Way. The melody is that of the French song "Comme d'habitude" composed in 1967 by Claude François and Jacques Revaux. Anka's English lyrics are unrelated to the original French by Claude François and Gilles Thibaut. "My Way" is often quoted as the most remade song in history.
The lyrics of "My Way" tell the story of a man who is nearing death. He is comfortable with and takes responsibility for how he dealt with all the twists of his life while maintaining a respectable degree of integrity.
Paul Anka heard the original 1967 French pop song, Comme d'habitude (as usual) performed by Claude Francois with music by Claude Francois and Jacques Revaux and lyrics by Claude Francois and Gilles Thibault, while on holiday in the south of France. He flew to Paris to negotiate the rights to the song. In a 2007 interview, he said: "I thought it was a bad record, but there was something in it." He acquired publishing rights at no cost and, two years later, had a dinner in Florida with Frank Sinatra and "a couple of Mob guys" at which Sinatra said he was "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." Anka finished the song at 5am. "I called Frank up in Nevada - he was at Caesar's Palace - and said, 'I've got something really special for you.'" Anka claimed: "When my record company caught wind of it, they were very pissed that I didn't keep it for myself. I said, 'Hey, I can write it, but I'm not the guy to sing it.' It was for Frank, no one else."
Frank Sinatra recorded his version of the song on December 30, 1968 and it was rush-released in early 1969. It reached #27 in the U.S. In the UK the single achieved a still unmatched record, becoming the recording with most weeks inside the Top 40. It spent 75 weeks between April 1969 and Sep 1971. It has spent a further 49 weeks in the Top 75 but never bettered the #5 slot achieved upon its first chart run

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Paul Anka
• Frank Sinatra
• Steve Bone
• improvising
• selmer mk 7
• real book
• Comme d'habitude

[CKwasney]

Excellent job as always. I really like your stand by the way.

[staguk334433]

Well done Steve.

[MySaxophoneJourney]

Ok, all I can say is that this was an excellent sax rendition of one beautiful song; great tone and very expressive improvised solo...well done...well done....

[BDMaff]

amazing, great improvisation, would give it 5* if youtube didn't change