Customer Reviews

His All Time Greatest Hits: 30th Anniversary Collection

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Paul Anka, from Ottawa, Ontario, has spanned a few decades as far as hit singles are concerned. He has a total of 60 charted hits on Billboard Hot 100, with three number 1 singles: Diana (1957), Lonely Boy (1959), and (You're) Having My Baby (1974). To have a complete singles or album discography of Paul Anka is much more challenging because he has changed labels a few times: ABC-Paramount, RCA-Victor, Barnaby, Buddah, Fame, United Artists, Epic, RCA-Victor, Columbia, Verve and Universal.

His major singles output was on ABC-Paramount label (from 1956-1962), RCA Victor (from 1962-1969) and United Artists (from 1974-1977). Rhino Records in 1989 put out a single CD covering his career of the above three labels: all original versions too.

The song listing with label/number and chart position is as follows:

01 Diana (ABC-Paramount 9831) 1/1957
02 You Are My Destiny (ABC-Paramount 9880) 7/1958
03 Crazy Love (ABC-Paramount 9907) 15/1958
04 Let The Bells Keep Ringing (ABC Paramount 9907) 16/1958
05 The Teen Commandments (ABC-Paramount 9974) 29/1958
06 (All Of A Sudden) My Heart Sings (ABC-Paramount 9987) 15/1958
07 Lonely Boy (ABC-Paramount 10022) 1/1959
08 Put Your Head On My Shoulder (ABC-Paramount 10040) 2/1959
09 It's Time To Cry (ABC-Paramount 10064) 4/1959
10 Puppy Love (ABC-Paramount 10082) 2/1960
11 My Home Town (ABC-Paramount 10106) 8/1960
12 Summer's Gone (ABC-Paramount 10147) 11/1960
13 Tonight My Love, Tonight (ABC-Paramount 10194) 13/1961
14 Dance On Little Girl (ABC-Paramount 10220) 10/1961
15 Love Me Warm And Tender (RCA Victor 7977) 12/1962
16 Eso Beso (That Kiss)(RCA Victor 8097) 19/1962
17 Goodnight My Love (RCA Victor 9648) 27/1969
18 Jubilation (Buddah 294) 65/1972
19 (You're) Having My Baby (United Artists 494) 1/1974
20 One Man Woman/One Woman Man (United Artists 569) 7/1974
21 I Don't Like To Sleep Alone (United Artists 615) 8/1975
22 (I Believe) There's Nothing Stronger Than Our Love (United Artist 685) 15/1975
23 Times Of Your Life (United Artists 737) 7/1975
24 My Way (album cut) 1978

To have 24 songs in one CD was a big deal in 1989. At that time, Rhino Records was the best oldies reissue label (e.g., Have A Nice Day series). Rhino Records also used original master tapes and great care in remastering, thus with great sound. If you are looking for one single CD of Paul Anka's Greatest Hits, covering his career, this set is it!

However, if you are looking just for his output in ABC-Paramount label, the most complete compilation is called The Story of Paul Anka, Volume 1 (31 songs) and Volume 2 (32 songs) on Canadian Artists Records (1994), if you can find it.

If you are looking for his RCA output, it is much more difficult and probably incomplete. The best sets are The Essential RCA Rock And Roll Recordings (1962-1968) on Taragon (1999) and Paul Anka Vegas Style: The Best Of The Late RCA And Buddah Recordings on Taragon (2000). Taragon has the best remastered sound, and now out of business. Many of the Joni James CDs are found on the Taragon label.

I personally have found many of Paul's original albums and have converted and remastered them into CDs. So far, I have 91 of Paul's CDs and 19 vinyl albums, and many 45s. Believe me, I am far from complete.

Paul Anka is a smart business man holding the copyrights to all his songs. But many of his RCA-Victor singles and albums are still missing. He has a box set of 4 CDs that you can buy during his concert, but believe it or not, one of the 4 discs have re-recorded versions of his songs. During an interview when he visited Hong Kong, he was specifically asked whether he has any intention to release all his catalogues, or let other labels, such as the great Bear Family Records from Germany to release ALL his songs in box-sets, and his answer is a firm NO! Too bad.

If you like Paul Anka as much as I do, this single CD on Rhino Records is a must-own. Highly recommended.

Everyone credits Paul Anka for being the author of 'MY WAY' That is wrong,the song's composer was a french guy by the name of Thibault,and the first singer was Frenchman named 'Claude Francois,[dead now]!

A not very comprehensive collection of Paul Anka's hits spread thru 1957 to 1978, from recordings of ABC/Paramount to United Artists, this CD gives a brief history of Paul's music. Only a box set with at least 4 CDs (each of not less than 79 mins at today's standard) could intensively cover all his great songs, such as 'The story of my love', 'Just young', 'Something happened', 'I love you baby', "Adam & Eve' and 'I miss you so' etc. In fact, even his best album in the 70's "The Painter" is still not available in CD format. This CD is the best collection of Anka's hits available in the States up to this moment and the remastering sound is good. For Paul Anka's fans in USA, Sonymusic of Japan has issued a new Paul Anka's ABC-Paramount Original greatest Hits on 2002.5.22, namely "The Golden Bowl Paul Anka's Original Hits", cat. number SICP-140 which includes 23 songs. This CD is the soundtrack album of a Japanese TV drama using Paul's songs as backgroung music...those who look for more Paul's hits should hunt for this one which is still available in Japan.

One of the things that distinguished Paul Anka from the vast majority of his contemporaries was the fact that he wrote most of the songs he recorded. This was true both in his heyday in the late 1950's and early 1960's as well as during his improbable comeback in the 1970's. Paul Anka's 30th Anniversary
Collection is truly a celebration of the man and his music. Anka's early recordings for ABC-Paramount truly captured the flavor of that era. Anyone who grew up during those years has a very special place in their hearts for such classics as "Put Your Head On My Shoulder", "Lonely Boy" and of course his 1957 summertime smash "Diana". His chart success continued pretty much uninterrupted until he departed ABC-Paramount late in 1961. Anka moved on to RCA records who had extremely high hopes for him. As often happens when artists switch labels, the move simply did not work out. Despite a couple of fairly big hits in 1962, Anka failed to distinguish himself for the remainder of the decade. A short stint at Buddah also proved unproductive.
Then in 1974, Anka re-emerged with a vengeance with an unlikely hit "You're Having My Baby". Much to everyones surprise, the tune became Anka's first number one song in 15 years. His new label, United Artists, promoted him heavily and Anka followed up with three more Top Ten tunes. Rhino has done a magnificent job in putting together a retrosepective of this very important artist. The disc includes 24 of his very best. Among my favorites are 1961's "Dance On Little Girl"
and his 1975 hit "Times of Your Life". You may recall that Kodak used this in it's commercials for quite some time. Also included is the extremely hard to find "The Teen Commandments",
a 1958 hit recorded with his ABC-Paramount labelmates George Hamilton IV and Johnny Nash. I was a bit disappointed that Rhino did not include Anka's final Top 40 hit from 1983 "Hold Me 'Til The Mornin' Comes". In conclusion, I was quite pleased with the remastering job and the 8 page booklet included in this package. I would be quite surprised if you can find a better collection of Anka's work anywhere else.

Growing up in the Ottawa area in the 1950s, one of my favourite haunts was Andy Anka's club across the river in Angers, Quebec. Andy was Paul's uncle and, from time to time, we'd see Paul there. We also played a bit of hockey against him during his Fisher Park high school days [he was a goaltender], and saw some of his earliest performances with a group at the Central Canada Exhibition around 1955/56.

His talent even then was apparent, and so it was no surprise when his very first record, I Confess b/w the oddly-titled Blau-Wildebeest Fontaine [a South African location in the novel Prestor John] received considerable airplay in the area. Released by Modern Records in 1956 it wasn't a national hit, but that and his renowned determination did serve to bring him to the attention of Don Costa and ABC-Paramount Records.

The first effort there was Diana, about his babysitter in Ottawa, and the rest, as they, was history. Diana herself capitalized on her new-found fame by opening the Diana Grill after the record shot to # 1 on both the pop and R&B charts in the summer of 1957.

His follow-up disc, I Love You, Baby. did not fare well, reaching just # 97 that December. But then came You Are My Destiny [# 7 pop/# 14 R&B early in 1958] and, in short order, the double-side hit Crazy Love [# 15] and its flip Let The Bells Keep Ringing [# 16] in June 1958.

From there to 1983 he would chalk up another 48 pop Hot 100 singles, four of which would also cross over to the R&B charts once more [tracks 7, 8, 9, and 12], and from 1969 to 1984 some 20 would make the Adult Contemporary charts. He would do all that for seven different labels - ABC-Paramount, RCA Victor, Buddah, Fame, Epic, United Artists, and Columbia.

So, it's obvious that this otherwise fine AAD effort from Rhino barely puts a dent in his long list of hit singles. But it's a good start and hopefull will lead to other volumes. There are five pages of liner notes written by Ellis Widner, entertainment editor of The Tulsa Tribune and co-author of The Oak Ridge Boys: Our Story. On the reverse of the CD is a discography of the contents.

The only non-Anka hit in the package is My Way [more closely associated with Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley]. As another reviewer points out, this was not Anka's composition alone, having been written earlier by the French team of Thibault, Revaux, and Francois, although Paul did compose the English words.

Well worth having for all fans of Paul Anka.

this is a wonderful CD of Paul Anka's hit songs. enjoyed it immensely Been playing over and over ever since I got it.

This is by far the best single-disc greatest hits album of Paul Anka since it contains all of the major essentials duing his singing career. However, it is not a COMPLETE hit collection, but it's the closest thing you will find. The next logical step, unless Rhino already started, is a four or five CD box set covering all the hits, some rarities, some b-sides, some live recordings, and some unreleased material. Anka deserves box set treatment. The very least Rhino should do is make a collection of his ORIGINAL ABC-Paramount years of music (1957-1961) which is hard to find on CD. Does everyone agree?

Upon recommendations of several Amazon.com reviewers, I bought this Paul Anka 30th Anniversary Collection. I am listening to it right now. It is great to hear the early songs in their ABC Paramount original versions, rather than the RCA re-do's a few years later. Don Costa's orchestra is there in all its glory, conjuring up all my old teenage memories. (I was a small-town part-time disc jockey at the time and did a Paul Anka Birthday Show for two or three consecutive years.)

Of course, it is also good to hear the RCA originals and those from United Artists and the one from Buddah. Originals: That's the key.

Rhino Records has done an outstanding compilation job once again. As one reviewer suggested, now how about a 4-CD set by someone at sometime?

This goes through most of his original hit recordings and also covers many of the other things he recorded which I am getting to like for the first time. It ends with "My Way", a live version, which is quite good. I just saw him live in Nashville, he was great, and I am enjoying the CD even more now. As for "My Way", his bio. on A&E says he found the melody, but wrote new words for Frank Sinatra.

I'd not like to wait 20 years to buy the 50th anniversary collection.