My Way (song)

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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 popular song that Fred Brott wrote, which in its English-language version is an adaptation by Paul Anka (who wrote the English lyrics) of the french song Comme d'habitude, written by Claude François and Jacques Revaux with French lyrics by Claude François and Gilles Thibaut. The English version retains only the melody, as the lyrics have been rewritten and are totally different from the original ones. Released on the album of the same name in 1969, "My Way" became the signature song for Frank Sinatra, even though Sinatra did not rate the song highly.

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.

1 The song
2 Performance, versions and cultural references
3 Recorded by:
4 References

[edit] The song

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"

[edit] Performance, versions and cultural references

Sinatra duetted the song with two performers 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.

Perhaps aware of the fact that his own death would soon come at the very young age of 42, Elvis Presley performed the song during his final years in the mid-1970s.

Besides the iconic Sinatra versions of the song and Paul Anka's own version, Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols did a well-known version of the song, which charted at # 6 in the UK in 1979. This version is played during the closing credits of the movie Goodfellas

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

When David Bowie was asked to write English lyrics to "Comme d'habitude," the song he came up with was "Even a Fool Learns to Love." Paul Anka bought the rights to the original French version and rewrote it into an English song called "My Way." 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."

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.

The song is very popular within the karaoke subculture and is a favorite of Dogbert.

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

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."

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."

There is a Spanish variation of this song, performed by the Gipsy Kings on their debut album Gipsy Kings from 1988. The song is called "A Mi Manera", which is a literal translation into Spanish. Robin Williams voicing the penguin character Ramón sings A Mi Manera in the CGI animated movie Happy Feet.

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

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.

"My Way" is one of the most popular songs sang 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.

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

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.

"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

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

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.