Paul Anka

• Genre: Brill Building Pop
• Hometown: New York City
• Paul Anka Website

About

Pop idol, teenage heart throb and a businessman of superhuman success, Paul Anka sometimes appears to be the embodiment of the Eisenhower years' American dream. In the 1950s, "Puppy Love," "Diana," and "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" provided a safe alternative to that crotch-grabbing satanist Elvis Presley, but what's interesting is that Anka wrote most of the material he performed himself. After his pop career ground to a halt in the '60s, Anka bought the rights to his own music and lived off the money made in re-issues. He also wrote the Tom Jones hit "She's a Lady" and the Sinatra favorite "My Way." In the 1970s Anka enjoyed a brief comeback singing duets with Odia Coates, an Oakland, Calif., singer he discovered. Anka is responsible for some of pop music's smarmiest moments, but the joke's on us because he's got more money than God.

- Chris Von Rumohr