Frank Sinatra – "My Way" (1969)

I faced it all

And I stood tall

And did it my way!

Although “My Way” became Frank Sinatra's signature song, his daughter Tina has said that her father hated the song: 

He didn’t like it.  That song stuck and he couldn’t get it off his shoe.  He always thought that song was self-serving and self-indulgent.

Ol’ Blue Eyes hit that nail right on the head – “My Way” is self-serving and self-indulgent as hell.  

“My Way” is so full of sh*t that if it had eyes, those eyes would be brown.  Which is why “My Way” belongs in the 2 OR 3 LINES QUINTESSENTIAL AMERICAN SONGBOOK.  Because Americans are so full of sh*t that our eyes are brown, too.  

*     *     *     *     *

“My Way” was originally a French song.  (Not surprising – after all, the French are even more full of sh*t than Americans are.)

The French version of the song – which was titled “Comme d’habitude” (“As Usual”) – was a hit in France in 1968.

The song’s publisher asked a young David Bowie to write English lyrics for the song.  Bowie did so and made a demo of his version of the song, but it was never released.

Paul Anka and Frank Sinatra

Paul Anka heard the original French recording of the song while vacationing in France, and bought the rights to it.  He rewrote the lyrics after having dinner with Frank Sinatra in Florida:

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 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 a few hours later: 

I called Frank up in Nevada – he was at Caesars Palace – and said, “I’ve got something really special for you.”  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.

Sinatra recorded the song in one take.  “My Way” sold well in the U.S., but it was an even bigger hit in the UK, where it remained in the top forty for 75 weeks.

*     *     *     *     *

It turns out that Paul Anka was full of sh*t, too.  Despite staying that he wasn’t the guy to sing it, Anka ended up recording “My Way” no fewer than five times.  

*     *     *     *     *

Three of the people who were asked to nominate songs for the CBS Sunday Morning show’s “Essential American Songbook” named “My Way.”  

One of those three was the very brown-eyed William Shatner, who sang “My Way” to George Lucas at a 2005 American Film Institute ceremony honoring the Star Wars director.

Click here to watch Shatner’s performance.

*     *     *     *     *

Click here to listen to Frank Sinatra’s recording of “My Way.”

Click here to buy that recording from Amazon.