My Way: An Autobiography by Paul Anka & David Dalton

Author:Paul Anka & David Dalton [Anka, Paul & Dalton, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Composers & Musicians
ISBN: 9781250035202
Google: 4Po3SXZTmdcC
Amazon: B009HOTHPE
Barnesnoble: B009HOTHPE
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2013-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

Seven

MICHAEL JACKSON, LIZ TAYLOR, A JEWEL HEIST, KINKY BRITS, TENNIS AT MIDNIGHT … AND THEN I GET PREGNANT

Things began to pick up for me recordwise when in 1971 I wrote “She’s a Lady” for Tom Jones. The first meeting I had with Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Gordon Mills, their manager, they came to my home in New York and we tried to make a deal for my publishing company. It’s late at night, and we were watching a movie at my house and they are all drinking champagne. The next day I woke up, looked in the living room, and my wife, being a significant decorator, and I were shocked to find all our bowls of potpourri empty. They had eaten all of it thinking it was potato chips.

I wrote “She’s a Lady” on the back of a TWA menu, flying back from London after doing Tom Jones’s TV show. Jones’s manager wanted me to write him a song. If I have an idea and I don’t have a pad of paper, I’ll write on whatever is available. What’s the difference? Paper is paper. And those blank pages on the back covers of menus are nice and hard. I like the look of them, and I can print on them without needing anything for support. When I’m writing, I generally toy with an idea until it manifests itself—meaning a phrase or a tune comes into my head and eventually begins to jell. When something hits me, I write it down immediately. I don’t wait or it’s gone. You just cherish those moments and write on anything—the stewardess’s leg if need be.

My main problem in writing for Tom Jones was finding the right vibe for him. He’s got a great voice, and he’s a good friend. “She’s a Lady” is not a song I would ever sing myself, but thinking of Tom it just came to me. It started with a verse.

Well she’s all you’d ever want

She’s the kind they’d like to flaunt and take to dinner

Well she always knows her place

She’s got style, she’s got grace, she’s a winner.

Ouch! You get that first verse, and if you’re lucky you’ve found your groove and the rest writes itself—theoretically anyway. I don’t know where that stuff comes from, but believe me I’ll take it. A germ of an idea in your head is all you need, but it does help to have an artist in mind. When I think about Tom Jones, I get a cocky, macho image—writing for other people is like playing a character and I thought, “What would this character say?”

What came out was pretty brash and arrogant, and sure, it was politically incorrect, but what the hell. I write like a Method actor, putting myself in his place. It’s the shortest time it ever took me to write a song. I knocked off the lyric on that TWA flight from London back to New York. Later I went to my den and pulled the melody out in about an hour and a half.

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