BEFORE: Today's documentary came out late last year, a few months too late to make the 2025 block, but as soon as it aired on HBO I grabbed it, this was like a must-watch. Like if I don't get Paul Anka represented here, what exactly am I doing? Who else has charted at least once in each of the last 7 decades? If there's any information about how to survive in show biz, it's going to be here - just like with the docs about Norman Lear, Carl Reiner and (upcoming) Mel Brooks and Dick Van Dyke. But crap, I'm trying to do a U.S.-themed Doc Block this year for the big 250, and Anka is Canadian. What can I do, except try to speed up Trump's looming annexation of our Northern neighbor?
AHA, you can't think about Paul Anka without thinking about Las Vegas, I bet back in the day Paul Anka was the one who told Sinatra to maybe check out this cool place in the desert as a business opportunity. Sure enough, Mr. Anka lived near Vegas for the entire decade of the 70's, so tonight's "Get to Know a State" profile choice is simple - NEVADA!
Date admitted to the U.S.: October 31, 1864 (the 36th state)
Claim to fame: Las Vegas, the place where everyone comes by plane and leaves by bus. Also the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam are pretty cool, but nothing beats Sin City.
Nickname: The Silver State, as in "insert all your quarters here"
Prevalent language: cold hard cash, baby
State Motto: "Place your bets"
State Flower: Sagebrush
State Fruit: Liberace
State Fruit: Liberace
State Reptile: Desert Tortoise (you know, why don't we just assume it's always going to be a turtle)
State Bird: Mountain bluebird
State Mammal: Desert Bighorn sheep
State Tree: Bristlecone pine
State Beverage: Whatever it is, it's free as long as you keep betting.
Notable Sports Teams: Just in the last couple of years, the Raiders moved there from Oakland, they got a hockey team, the Golden Knights, and in the WNBA there's the Las Vegas Aces.
Fun Fact: "Nevada" means snowy, and I can't think of a state with less snow. Like it's 100-plus degrees there all year long, I hear. Also I just learned that people who visited Vegas shortly after gambling was legalized would step outside to watch scheduled nuclear bomb tests, which sounds like fun until you realize how deadly that was. Good times.
I've been to Vegas twice, most recently in 2019, just a couple months before COVID hit. The first time we took side trips to Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, but the second time we stayed at three different hotels so we could visit a larger number of casinos, and we hit five different buffets in 8 days. We went to fake Paris, fake Venice and fake New York casinos, stayed in a fake Egyptian pyramid, and then we got tickets to the "Legends" show and saw performances by fake Elvis, fake Pat Benatar, fake Lady Gaga and fake Freddy Mercury. Can you tell what everything had in common? So my record goes up to 6-2 for states I've visited.
The Beatles carry over again from "ABBA: Super Troupe", and I'm pretty sure they never played Vegas, they never had to.
THE PLOT: Born in Ottawa to immigrants, Paul Anka exhibited early musical talent. At 16, he ambitiously headed to New York. Unlike other teen idols, he wrote his own songs. His multi-genre, multi-decade success resonates across generations.
AFTER: Same riddle as yesterday - how do you know when a guy has written one of the most iconic songs of all time, performed by Frank Sinatra? Don't worry, he'll tell you.
The film starts with Anka's first hit singles and appearances on TV at the age of 14. In retrospect, somebody really screwed up when they cast Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in "Deliver Me from Nowhere" because when I look at the younger Paul Anka (like 19-21, after he stopped being a chubby kid but before he was 30 and looked 50, Anka just screams Jeremy Allen White to me. The problem might have been that nobody was making a biopic about Paul Anka, like why would they? But I'll bet there are a lot of stories to be told...
I was marvelling at how old Anka must be, but then I looked it up on Wikipedia, he's only 84, that's not so uncommon. So why do we see him telling someone in this doc that he's 98? Is that supposed to be funny? Does he feel like he's 98? Is everything OK with him mentally? Or is this some kind of trick to get people to say he looks good for his age, when he really looks like he's 84? Look, I know this guy has some form of "artist brain" because he's incredibly self-centered and obsessed with his own fame, but this is a case where he has the talent and the experience to justify it, by my standards. The surest indication he has artist brain is the fact that his first wife asked him to retire, after he'd been in show business for 45 years and they'd been married 37 years. He didn't feel old or see the need to slow down, so naturally he divorced her. Yeah, that reminds me of my animation job, I made the similar mistake of suggesting to my 80-year old boss that he had the option to get out of the business, move upstate and stop chasing little golden statues. Turns out he had a different opinion on the matter, and I got sacked.
Paul Anka appeared on the Masked Singer back in Season 4 - one of the few performers I knew RIGHT AWAY, like as soon as they started singing. (see also Paul Shaffer and Penn & Teller). Anka, dressed as a huge headed stalk of broccoli, started singing and I just said to my wife, "Oh, that's Paul Anka, duh." It helped that I own his 2005 album of cover songs, "Rock Swings", that's how I knew his vocal style - but I also knew that this was exactly the kind of thing Anka would do, to stay relevant and on everyone's radar, without realizing that the joke was kind of on him. Yeah, people with Artist Brain will also do almost anything for a buck and not pick up on the fact they're being made fun of. Some of the "Rock Swings" cuts made it into the 2023 film "Old Dads", and I suppose shortly after that Bill Burr interviewed Anka for his podcast, and some of that footage is included or replicated here. Paul Anka might be the only 84 year old person who knows what a podcast is - but, you know, he tries to stay hip to trends.
Anka learned a long time ago to change with the times, he was one kind of singer when he was 15 and when he felt that the teen idol thing was going to wear thin at some point (and he was probably right) he became a different kind of singer. He figured out early on that having songwriting credits and publishing rights was the best way to make money and have consistent income, again, he was right, and he held on to most of the publishing rights to his music, with the exception of the song he wrote for Buddy Holly (he gave all future royalties to Holly's widow) and the theme for Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" (he split royalties with Johnny in order to secure the gig). Anka also became an actor during the 1960's because he felt it would be an easy gig - I'm right there with him, if you can get parts in movies, even cameos, you should do that. And yes, he was one of the first pop singers to perform at Vegas casinos. Anything to increase his brand and his presence and stay relevant.
Another surprise comeback came in 2009, just after Michael Jackson's death, and the posthumous release of a song called "This Is It", which was co-written by MJ and Anka back in 1980, as part of a batch of songs that Jackson put in the vault and decided not to release. Once it became a hit, Anka recognized it as a re-titled version of a song called "I Never Heard" that he wrote with The King of Pop. Anka decided to sue MJ's estate for credit and royalties, and at that point whoever was in charge ran a couple other songs they found in the vault by him, and Anka suddenly remembered that he co-wrote those, too. One of those was "Love Never Felt So Good" which was later recorded by Justin Timberlake.
This is all more proof that everyone is connected - Paul Anka worked a bit with Ennio Morricone, which connects him to Sergio Leone. He hung out with Sinatra and wrote "My Way" for him, which connects him to the Rat Pack. He played a casino pit-master who hated Elvis in the film "3000 Miles to Graceland", which connects him to Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner, and by extension, Goldie Hawn and Whitney Houston, I suppose. He guest-starred on "That 70's Show", and so did Gloria Gaynor and Tommy Chong, their documentaries are coming up later in this chain. And he shared songwriting credit with Johnny Carson, which connects him to just about everybody, plus he's Jason Bateman's father-in-law, to boot. He sang a song on "The Simpsons", made appearances on "Kojak", "The Fall Guy" and "American Idol"m but for some reason he can't or won't stop working, he still feels like there are more worlds to conquer. There's that "artist brain" kickin' in again...
But damn if simply everyone hasn't sung "My Way" at some point - hell, I even sang it at my parent's 30th anniversary party one year, by special request.
Directed by John Maggio (director of "Mr. Saturday Night")
Also starring Paul Anka (last seen in "Muscle Shoals"), Alicia Anka, Ethan Anka, Frankie Avalon (last seen in "Diana Ross: Supreme Sensation"), Irving Azoff, Bill Burr (last seen in "I Am Sam Kinison"), Michele Kahl,
with archive footage of Will Arnett (last seen in "Next Goal Wins"), Jason Bateman (last heard in "Zootopia 2"), Joey Bishop (last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Pat Boone (last seen in "Beatles '64"), Sammy Cahn, Bobby Cannavale (last seen in "Ezra"), Johnny Carson (last seen in "I Am Mother"), Dick Clark (last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much"), Jimmy Connors (last seen in "McEnroe"), Anderson Cooper (last seen in "Trainwreck: Poop Cruise"), Roger Daltrey (last seen in "If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd"), John Entwistle (ditto), Keith Moon (ditto), Pete Townshend (ditto), Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr. (last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Quincy Jones (ditto), Anne de Zogheb, Celine Dion (last seen in "Love Again"), Drake (last seen in "Think Like a Man Too"), Irvin Feld, Flavor Flav, Aretha Franklin (also last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much"), Mick Jagger (ditto), Matt Lauer (ditto), Annette Funicello (last seen in "Pee-Wee as Himself"), Justin Timberlake (ditto), Andy Warhol (ditto), Jackie Gleason (last seen in "Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print"), Arthur Godfrey, Merv Griffin (last seen in "Martha"), Skitch Henderson, Buddy Holly, Michael Jackson (also last seen in "Diana Ross: Supreme Sensation"), Brian Jones (last seen in "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple"), Bill Wyman (ditto), Tom Jones (last seen in "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind"), Harvey Korman (last seen in "Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution"), Peter Lawford (last seen in "Brats"), Peggy Lee, Jerry Lee Lewis (last seen in "Elton John: Never Too Late"), Dean Martin (last seen in "Roberta"), Frank Sinatra (ditto), Jules Podell, Elvis Presley (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Meredeith Vieira (ditto), Flo Rida, Ryan Seacrest (last seen in "Capitalism: A Love Story"), Dinah Shore (last seen in "Rather"), Nina Simone (last seen in "What Happened, Miss Simone?"), Ed Sullivan (last seen in "Here"), Sid Vicious (last seen in "Dare to Be Different"), Bokeem Woodbine (last seen in "Mom and Dad")
RATING: 7 out of 10 of his songs released in Italian - hey, he's multi-lingual, too!
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