An Evening with Paul Anka - About As Close to Sinatra As I Can Get

If not for my years working as a nanny, an amazing artist like Paul Anka may have slipped under my radar, but thanks to my former employer, Jim, I was exposed to Paul Anka’s “Rock Swings” album one morning upon arriving to work. As I heard “Jump” by Van Halen being sung in a classic, Sinatra-esque kind of way, I couldn’t help but turn to the eldest child and say “Your parents have an awesome taste in music.” It was love at first sound and I borrowed the CD immediately, which essentially influenced my desire to go see Paul Anka perform Friday night at the Ruth Eckerd Hall.

January 29, 2010 Clearwater hosted Anka’s final show of his tour and filled Ruth Eckerd with his faithful fans. Outnumbered by audience members twice or even older, watching the crowd was half of the fun. With no opening act, Anka started promptly at 8pm and entered the auditorium from the very back of the room, walking down the stairs to greet the crowd. The ladies went wild, pushing husbands out of the way, with arms outstretched to get a piece of him.
With percussion, drums, guitar, bass, horns, piano and even a synthesizer behind him Anka started off the show with a bang and an incredible amount of energy. Outfitted in a swingin’ black suit, white shirt and white tie he sauntered in and out of the crowd sporadically while singing their favorite tunes, and asked them all to sing along. Everyone knew the words. After 53 years of touring, it’s safe to say, the man knows what he’s doing. His performance was very animated and he was incredibly keyed in to every single beat of each tune.

Anka sang with incredible conviction. Until seeing him sing live, somehow I’d missed just how powerfully soothing his voice truly was. He performed pieces from his entire catalog: “Puppy Love,” “Diana,” “My Way,” “Times of Your Life,” and the theme from “The Longest Day” were featured throughout the evening. He honored and bragged about his many celebrity acquaintances and artists he’d worked with over the years by singing songs written with or by them which included Bobby Darrin, Frank Sinatra, Buddy Holly, and even Michael Jackson.
After all of the controversy with Michael Jackson and the “This Is It” song it was refreshing to find that Paul Anka was light-hearted and quite comedic about the whole situation with his attribution to it and how Jackson’s lawyers and representation handled it. During his performance of “This Is It” he had the recorded voice of Jackson accompany him, a method he also used with a Sammy Davis Jr. song and slideshow shown later in the performance.

Anka is a great performer and the evening was wonderful. He played a two-hour set, with no encore but a few covers, a few tributes, a great enthusiasm and gratitude for his audience. He even kept the audience further entertained with some amusingly relevant jokes about politics, Tiger Woods, and even American Idol. The ideals of showmanship and “show-biz” that existed in the 50’s were prevalent and refreshing. It was both relaxing and entertaining; definitely an experience that will not be forgotten. Although he didn’t play a song off of my first love, “Rock Swings,” Anka did everything but disappoint. This legendary artist definitely left the audience at Ruth Eckerd with smiles on their faces and a great “Jump” into the weekend.