Paul Anka - His All Time Greatest Hits 30th Anniversary Collection (24 tracks) +Album Reviews

Gotta have the originals, and here they are

05/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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?"

Enjoyable look back at this prolific singer/songwriter

Paul Tognetti | Cranston, RI USA | 04/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Re-mastered from the Originals, great stereo and quality.

01/27/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is the only one I have seen which has the original hits, not re-created. A fine addition to my music collection."

Great disc

mistermaxxx@yahoo.com | usa | 03/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Paul Anka has writing some of the greatest songs ever.this set reflects that.Diana is still a classic as is My Way.a must have."

Very Nice, But Puts A Mere Dent In His Library Of Hit Single

mistermaxxx@yahoo.com | 08/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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 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 called The Bobby Soxers 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-Wildeveest 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 Billboard Pop Top 100 and R&B charts in the summer of 1957.

His follow-up disc, I Love You, Baby. did not fare even remotely as well, reaching just # 97 that December. But then came You Are My Destiny [# 7 Top 100/# 14 R&B early in 1958] and, in short order, the double-sided 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 [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 hopefully 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."

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