Introduction
Paul Anka was still a teenager when America transformed his voice into a billion-dollar phenomenon — and nearly shut him out of the very songs he created.
At just sixteen, Anka wrote and recorded “Diana,” a track so explosive it reshaped the teen pop landscape almost overnight. He was Canadian, virtually unknown, and suddenly inescapable on American airwaves. The profits were staggering. The power, however, was not his. Contracts leaned heavily toward record labels, and young artists were often treated as replaceable — bright flames destined to burn out fast.
But Anka was watching closely.
Rather than chasing chart success alone, he pursued something far more enduring: ownership. While many of his contemporaries unknowingly surrendered their catalogs, Anka negotiated publishing rights and backend control at a time when most artists didn’t even realize such leverage was possible. That foresight quietly built his wealth long before the spotlight began to dim.
Then came a turn few could have predicted.
As rock music surged and pushed traditional crooners aside, Anka didn’t resist the tide — he adapted to it. He shifted from center stage to the writer’s desk, reshaping careers from behind the curtain. Taking a haunting French melody, he reimagined it in English and created “My Way” for Frank Sinatra. The song became more than a hit; it became an anthem — and a masterstroke that secured Anka’s influence for generations as royalties continued to flow.
He never truly stepped away.
Instead, Anka wove himself into the fabric of American entertainment while maintaining control of the business beneath it all — from television theme songs and Las Vegas residencies to film projects and the strategic power of his catalog.
Paul Anka was never simply a singer who outlasted fame.
He was a strategist — a creator who learned the industry’s rules early and refused to let anyone else own what he built.