• Track Listing

AVID Pop continues with its Four Classic Albums series with a re-mastered 2CD set release from Paul Anka complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details and bonus tracks;

“Paul Anka”; “My Heart Sings”; “Swings For Young Lovers” and “Young Alive And In Love”

Our latest entrant into the AVID Pop Hall Of Fame is a man who has been in show business since he was 14 years old, the king of Canadian pop music, Mr. Paul Anka! This “pint sized titan” from Ottawa is about to hit 80 years old this year but way back when, he was a sixteen year old prodigee arriving in Manhattan to audition for Don Costa at ABC Paramount records with a handful of his own compositions. These would include the legendary smash hit “Diana” alongside “You Are My Destiny” and “Crazy Love” all of which feature on the first side of our double CD set. Heck, he had already cut his first single “I Confess” at 14 years old in 1956! We feature Paul’s first three album’s recorded for ABC Paramount before he left for RCA from which we feature our fourth offering “Young Alive And In Love”. I can remember listening (at a very young age!) to “Diana” from my parents box of 45s alongside “Whole Lotta Woman” by Marvin Rainwater, “Running Bear” by Johnny Preston and The Fleetwoods, “Come Softly To Me” alongside many other faves. Then Helen Shapiro crept in with a couple of classics around 1961, but then The Beatles arrived. And for me, music had finally come alive and spoken to me. These other guys were toast! Many, many artists from the fifties whether pop or rock n roll found their careers cruelly curtailed by the Fab Four. Not Paul Anka! His songwriting skills enabled him to have a fantastically successful career, from “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” for Buddy Holly (he gave the royalties to Buddy’s widow after Buddys tragic death) to “Puppy Love” (written for old flame Annette Funicello) and revived by Donny Osmond and as the English lyricist to the legendary “My Way” by Ol’ Blue Eyes himself. All the while Paul continued to perform in cabaret and theatres around the world and was one of the first to have a residency in Las Vegas. But for now, just sit back and let these four early Paul Anka albums take you back to the heady days of American pop music at its finest.

Paul Anka / My Heart Sings / Swings For Young Lovers / Young Alive & In Love - 2 CDs