Paul Anka is weighing in on the rumor about Frank Sinatra that’s been swinging around Hollywood for decades.
The singer, 84, who penned the English lyrics to Sinatra’s iconic “My Way,” is the focus of a new HBO Max documentary, “Paul Anka: His Way.” While promoting the film — a deep dive into his life and decades-spanning career — the Canadian singer-songwriter was confronted with the notorious question: just how “big” was his late friend’s legend?
“Yeah, it was huge,” Anka told Page Six when asked about rumors that Sinatra was well-endowed.
“I don’t know what that does for you!” he laughed.
Anka spent time with ol’ blue eyes and the rest of the Rat Pack in Las Vegas, where they would often take saunas together, the outlet reported.
“I had trouble with eye contact,” Anka joked.
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However, there was another star Sinatra couldn’t quite measure up to.
“Crazy, of all people,” Anka said. “Milton Berle!”
The “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” crooner isn’t the first to address the topic. Vanity Fair previously reported that Sinatra’s second wife, actress Ava Gardner, once remarked that she stayed with the 119-pound entertainer for very personal reasons. While the marriage lasted from 1951 to 1957, the rumor persisted in Hollywood over the years.
Anka and Sinatra’s lives, however, were connected in a far more meaningful way.
At age 24, while vacationing in France, Anka heard a French song called “Comme d’habitude.” The “Puppy Love” singer quickly bought the rights, kept the melody, and rewrote the lyrics with Sinatra in mind, NPR reported.
In 1968, the “Chairman of the Board” himself recorded the song. “My Way” revitalized Sinatra’s career and became a pop culture phenomenon. NPR reported that “My Way” is the most played song at funerals and has been covered by many other artists, including Elvis Presley and Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols.
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“Sinatra was quitting show business, and I felt really wrong about it — to the point where I had to sit down and write,” Anka recalled to Fox News Digital in 2021. “It was going to be the last album he was going to do.”
Anka said he vividly remembers hearing Sinatra sing “My Way” for the first time.
“I was in my apartment in New York,” he said. “He was in a studio in Los Angeles with my producer, Don Costa — I had introduced Sinatra to Don. He said, ‘Kid, listen to this.’ He put the phone next to the speaker and said, ‘Listen.’ I heard the song for the first time over the phone, from L.A. to New York.”
“And I started crying,” he continued. “I felt the difference. I heard the difference because during my low period in the ’60s, I was still doing my thing but hadn’t written anything like that. I just started crying — happy tears — thinking, ‘Wow, this is something. This is going to change my life.’ It changed both our lives, in a sense. I was very moved.”
Anka added that he still gets a thrill from hearing other artists record the song.
“It never gets dull,” he said. “I think Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols moved me when he did ‘My Way.’”
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Anka has continued performing over the years. He told Fox News Digital that one of his goals is to help keep Sinatra’s legacy alive through song.
“I’m a huge fan — always was,” he explained. “And I love him as a person. He was really good to me. I do Sinatra stuff to keep the songbook alive. It’s like what attracted me to Michael Bublé when I first heard him. He’s keeping it alive, and I’m proud of him. But what I do whenever I can is keep that core and that foundation of what our music was founded on. We should never forget.”
“And that demographic I perform for now includes the TikTok crowd, which I hope to entertain with those songs,” Anka continued.
“They need to hear those songs — and they need to remember Frank Sinatra,” he said. “A lot of places I go, people don’t remember Johnny Carson or know who Sammy Davis Jr. was, and that’s scary. So I said, ‘OK, this tour will be a little bit of Frank, a little bit of what I do, something from the new album — and then everybody gets educated in a small way.’”
Anka said he’s enjoyed the renewed attention for his 1959 hit “Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” which went viral on TikTok in 2021. And these days, he’s focused on what’s ahead.
“Performing — I miss that,” he said. “That’s who I am. That’s why I am. And as long as my health holds up, you know, this has truly been a blessed journey.”
Anka has a new album set for release early next year.
