“My Way”: The Baby Daddy of “Mars” and more

Did you know that Bowie wrote English lyrics for a song that’d later become My Way? The tune was from the French song Comme d'habitude. It was composed by Jacques Revaux and released in 1967 by French singer Claude François.

Legend goes that Paul Anka heard the song on the radio during a French holiday and decided to secure the song’s rights. Anka would write English lyrics, based loosely on the original and a conversation Anka had with Frank Sinatra over dinner. During dinner Sinatra would claim that he was planning to leave show business. That night, Anka wrote the lyrics with Sinatra in mind and made subtle changes to the original’s melody. Anka brought it to Sinatra who released the song in 1969. It was an international smash.

Bowie heard the Sinatra song, recognizing it as the tune he worked on. He’d composed Life on Mars as revenge, borrowing some of the song’s structure.

Hear the story here:

Boys Playin’ Hard

How to play with force and spunk:

The Fifth Beatle

Hairy Georgeson

Tadpole Sia Before the Total Pop Music Frog

When Australian pop wonder Sia first stepped away from the local South Australian music scene, she'd move to London and find work as a backup singer for Jamiroquai. Next, was work with Zero 7 for three albums. Destiny is probably the best known work of the period (2002). This being back in a time when Sia was still hanging actual face out there. I’d never realized that it was her voice I was hearing:



(Not the original vid I posted. For some reason that was taken down. This is not quite as good but close enough.)

If you want to go into pop and you don’t look like you’re ready to be pimped as sexy covermeat for an entertainment magazine, forget it. Pop music may not be for you.