Sinatra and Vicious: My Way Done Their Way
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- Date Submitted: 02/23/2010 05:36 PM
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Sinatra and Vicious: My Way Done Their Way
According to Wikipedia, a cover tune or “cover version” is defined as a “new rendition (performance or recording) of a previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song” (“cover version”). When proposed to write a paper describing and comparing an original song to a cover version, I wanted to choose two versions that completely differed in sound and style. By choosing “My Way” performed by Frank Sinatra and ten years later by Sid Vicious, I found what I was looking for. Both songs, derived from the same song, could not be any more different from each other. Even though Frank and Sid came from and performed for two very different worlds, both cultural icons represent that “bad boy” image of their time. Beneath Frank Sinatra’s reserved exterior laid a rebellious spirit trapped in a conservative world while Sid Vicious spewed rage and rebellion, reflective of his troubled past as well as his embodiment of the anti-establishment movement of the London music scene.
Many do not know (including myself before this project) that Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” (1969) was written by Paul Anka for Frank and that Anka actually based his version on a popular French song he heard while on vacation on the Riviera in 1967. The original song by “Gillis Thibault, Jacques Rebaux, and Claude Francois, the last of the trio being a chanteur who introduced it in Europe under its first title Comme d’Habitude” (“As Usual”)” (Friedwald, 1997, p. 446) in 1968. According to the website Naked Translations, the English translation of Francois’s version “conveys his melancholy and disillusion with life and love”. Although Paula Anka’s “My Way” had different lyrics, he stated that he “instantly connected with the melody” and after running into Frank Sinatra who “mentioned retiring sometime soon, he asked Paul when he was going to write something for him” (“My Way”). Paul did write that song for Sinatra and that song was the classic...
According to Wikipedia, a cover tune or “cover version” is defined as a “new rendition (performance or recording) of a previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song” (“cover version”). When proposed to write a paper describing and comparing an original song to a cover version, I wanted to choose two versions that completely differed in sound and style. By choosing “My Way” performed by Frank Sinatra and ten years later by Sid Vicious, I found what I was looking for. Both songs, derived from the same song, could not be any more different from each other. Even though Frank and Sid came from and performed for two very different worlds, both cultural icons represent that “bad boy” image of their time. Beneath Frank Sinatra’s reserved exterior laid a rebellious spirit trapped in a conservative world while Sid Vicious spewed rage and rebellion, reflective of his troubled past as well as his embodiment of the anti-establishment movement of the London music scene.
Many do not know (including myself before this project) that Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” (1969) was written by Paul Anka for Frank and that Anka actually based his version on a popular French song he heard while on vacation on the Riviera in 1967. The original song by “Gillis Thibault, Jacques Rebaux, and Claude Francois, the last of the trio being a chanteur who introduced it in Europe under its first title Comme d’Habitude” (“As Usual”)” (Friedwald, 1997, p. 446) in 1968. According to the website Naked Translations, the English translation of Francois’s version “conveys his melancholy and disillusion with life and love”. Although Paula Anka’s “My Way” had different lyrics, he stated that he “instantly connected with the melody” and after running into Frank Sinatra who “mentioned retiring sometime soon, he asked Paul when he was going to write something for him” (“My Way”). Paul did write that song for Sinatra and that song was the classic...