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My Way

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This article is about the Frank Sinatra song. For the Limp Bizkit song, see My Way (Limp Bizkit song).

"My Way" is a song with lyrics written by Paul Anka and popularized by Frank Sinatra. The melody is an adaptation of the French song "Comme d'habitude" by Claude Francois, Jacques Revaux, and Gilles Thibaut, but Anka's English lyrics are unrelated to the original French.

Themes

The lyrics of "My Way" tell the story of a man who is nearing death, and introspectively looks back at his life whilst fictionally speaking to a friend who is sitting next to him.

The man's personality as described in the song involves a strong-willed, confident and determined man who is not reliant on others to progress further through life. He is happy with how his life has turned out, and what he has achieved; he acknowledges that he too has regrets and has suffered sadness. However, he remains upbeat and amused that he has made it this far:

And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing...
To think, I did all that, and may I say, not in a shy way
Oh no, oh no not me, I did it my way

Frank Sinatra version

Released on Frank Sinatra's 1969 album My Way in 1969, "My Way" was at first a modest hit for Sinatra in the United States, reaching number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in spring and early summer 1969. However it fared better on the Adult Contemporary chart, reaching number 2.

In the United Kingdom, "My Way" was a more immediate hit, reaching number 5 on the UK Singles Chart in Spring 1969 and becoming the year's best-selling single there. Remarkably, the Sinatra "My Way" then re-entered the singles chart six more times during 1970 and 1971, achieving placements between numbers 18 and 39. In all this "My Way" holds the UK Singles Chart record for most total weeks on the chart, across all these runs.

Even beyond chart performance, Sinatra's recording of "My Way" had staying power, and soon became the signature song for the latter stage of his career, even though Sinatra did not rate the song highly[citation needed]. It was the closing number on his 1974 concert document The Main Event - Live and is also featured as the penultimate song on his Live from Las Vegas 1986 performance. A DVD of a 1978 Vegas performance of it is included in the Sinatra: Vegas collection.

Sinatra also duetted the song with two performers in the last years before his death: Luciano Pavarotti (released on the album Sinatra 80th: Live In Concert) and Willie Nelson (recorded for the Duets series in the mid-1990s but not released until 2005 in the Collector's Edition Set). Both recordings use the same Sinatra vocal and instrumental track.

Dorothy Squires version

In the midst of Sinatra's multiple runs on the UK Singles Chart, Welsh singer Dorothy Squires also released a rendition of "My Way", released in Summer 1970. Her recording reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart, and itself re-entered the chart twice more during that year.

Elvis Presley version

Elvis Presley began performing the song in concert during the mid-1970s. In December 1977, several months after his death, his live recording of "My Way" was released as a single. In the U.S., it reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, number 6 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and the following year reached number 2 on the Country singles chart. In the UK, it reached number 9 on the UK Singles Chart.

Sid Vicious version

Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols did a well-known version of the song, which charted at #6 in the UK in 1979. To many

This version is played during the closing credits of the movie Goodfellas.

Other versions

Greta Keller always included the song during her last decade performing and did a duet with Rod McKuen singing the song at Lincoln Center in New York City and in Vienna.

U2 regularly performed a snippet of "My Way" at the end of their song "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" during their 1992-1993 Zoo TV Tour.

Broadway luminary Patti LuPone performs this song as part of her one-woman show Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda.

"My Way" is a favorite of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Minuteman Marching Band, which often concludes its performances with the song.

Alternate Versions

When David Bowie was asked to write English lyrics to "Comme d'habitude" in 1968, the song he came up with was "Even a Fool Learns to Love." However, Paul Anka bought the rights to the original French version, and Bowie's version was never released. "Life on Mars?" was Bowie's riposte to losing out on a fortune; it has similar chords to "My Way."

The song "A Mi Manera," on the Gipsy Kings' eponymous 1988 album Gipsy Kings, is a literal translation of Anka's lyrics into Spanish. Robin Williams, voicing the penguin character Ramón, sings A Mi Manera in the CGI animated movie Happy Feet.

In a segment for Sesame Street, Oscar the Grouch sang an anti-littering song called "Just Throw It My Way", a parody of the song.

Songwriter Bob Blue wrote a satire about life as a college student called "Their Way" Lyrics here: [1]. The Kipper Family[2], an 'alternative folk' English group covered the song, with their own satirical lyrics [3]

Cultural References

Popularity as a Tribute

"My Way" was found to be the song the most frequently played at British funeral services.[1]

It was played at the 1992 Winston Cup Awards Banquet in honor of Alan Kulwicki.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder requested the song for his final military sendoff (Zapfenstreich (in German)) prior to the inauguration of Angela Merkel.

At the 2006 Boston Celtics season opener, a video tribute set to Sinatra's version of "My Way" was shown to honor Red Auerbach, who had died days earlier.

References In Songs

The chorus of Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" (subsequently covered by Paul Anka on Rock Swings) references the song, in the line "My heart is like an open highway/Like Frankie said, I did it my way."

The eclectic pop duo Sparks released a song titled "When Do I Get to Sing 'My Way'" on their 1994 album Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins.

Rapper Jay-Z has made reference to the song several times over his career, and on The Blueprint 2 he samples the tune for his own song, entitled "I Did It My Way."

On his 2005 live DVD Who Put the M in Manchester?, Morrissey kicks off the set list by singing an acapella snippet of "My Way", prior to launching into "First of the Gang to Die".

The identification of the song with Sinatra became so strong, and the song so iconic, that the Soviet government of Mikhail Gorbachev jokingly referred to its policy of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other Warsaw Pact countries as the Sinatra Doctrine.

It was briefly sung in Russian in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace by an astronaut. His crew are irritated by the song and shout "Sing at home!", while the singer replies, with a giggle, "At home, they tell me to sing in space."

"My Way" is one of the most popular songs sung in karaoke bars in the Philippines to the point that it has been reported to cause numerous incidents of violence and homicides among drunkards in bars[citation needed].

My Way is number two on George Carlin's 10 Most Embarrassing Songs of All Time

"My Way" was translated into a made-up language called Dogg by Tom Stoppard in his play Dogg's Hamlet, where it is entitled "Satisfied Egg" and has the following words.

En-gage Con-grat-ulate More-o-ver state a-bysmal fair-ground Be-gat Per-am-bu-late This aer-o-drome Choc-’late e-clair found Mau-reen again pe-can Ma-rau-der fig Ul-ti-mate-ly cried egg Di-no-saurs Re-ly in-doors If sat-is-fied egg

Recorded by

Anka Sings My Way

References

  1. ^ My Way tops funeral charts – An article in The Guardian
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