Songoftheday 3/9/13 - Two broken hearts neither one knows what to say, both falling for love but not quite all the way...

Paul Anka - "Hold Me 'Til The Morning Comes"
from the album Walk A Fine Line (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #40 (two weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 2

Today's Song of the Day is by a Canadian-born singer that has been making hits since the 50s. Raised in the capital city of Ottawa by Lebanese Greek Orthodox parents, Paul Anka came to the US and released his first major single, "Diana" made him a star at the age of 16 when it climbed to #1 in the US, Britain, Australia, and his native Canada in the fall of 1957. He continued to not only consistently hit the pop charts, but also write classic music like Frank Sinatra's "My Way" and the theme to the Tonight Show, as well as act in both serious and teenybopper movies that littered the late 50s/early 60s. By 1959, Paul had scored another #1 single with "Lonely Boy".

However, the onslaught of the Beatles and the British Invasion took Anka like many of the teen idols of the age out of the limelight, and while still recording and getting modest hits, was no where near the radio presence he was in the early 60s, while killing it in more adult venues like Vegas.

In 1974, inspired by his wife while he was living/performing in Lake Tahoe, Paul transformed into a mature balladeer with the treacly "(You're) Having My Baby" with Odia Coates. With that single going to #1 on the US pop charts, his career was revitalized for a while, with a few more big hits
, including his first #1 hit on the adult-contemporary (soft-rock) chart, "Times Of Your Life". But as disco ruled the airwaves, Anka's style again put him on the radio backburner.

Anka switched over to Columbia Records in the early 80s, and the first release under the label, Walk A Fine Line, featured a song produced by Laura Branigan's guy Jack White, arranged by David Foster, and featuring members of Toto in the band and Chicago lead tenor Peter Cetera on background vocals for "Hold Me 'Til The Morning Comes"....

"Hold Me..." became the last top-40 hit Paul would have so far, and also was a big hit on the adult-contemporary format, where the song peaked at #2. After another top-20 on the AC chart from the album, "Second Chance", Anka would go back to being a nostaglia act, though he had a couple of albums in the 2000 that did moderately well where he remake rock songs into swing numbers. Also a song written with Michael Jackson for the Walk A Fine Line sessions, "This Is It", became the title song from the documentary movie/album released after Jackson's death in 2009. The 1983 album remains a rare and pricey find these days, which is a shame, since it's a A-list singer from a big-name label, and they can tack on the "This Is It" demo and sell it as an mp3 album. But what do I know.

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...and here's Paul singing "Hold Me Til The Morning Comes" live in Japan in 1983...

Up tomorrow: Saturday Night kings go to the country with the Gambler and Doralee Rhodes...