Paul Anka: paul anka still doing it his way
paul anka, 84, has released Inspirations of Life And Love in time for Valentine’s Day and says he has no intention of retiring, telling interviewers in February 2026 that performing and writing keep him going. The release — one of more than 130 albums he has recorded — arrives as he ramps up for an A Man and His Music tour in March 2026.
Paul Anka at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert
On February 15, 2026, fans gathered at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, Calif., to hear the 84-year-old perform a set steeped in nostalgia. Anka told the crowd, "We're here for a while, folks, " adding that if anyone needed to "take pills or go to the bathroom, just go whenever you want. " The evening reached back to his early hits, even quoting lines from "Diana": "I'm so young and you're so old... "
New album Inspirations of Life And Love, released in time for Valentine’s Day
In time for Valentine’s Day, Paul Anka released Inspirations of Life And Love, a collection he describes as music about love and life. The new album was issued on the Green Hill Music/Sun Label Group and follows a career tally of more than 130 recordings. CBS noted the release came "just this past week, " and Anka framed the record as another chapter in a decades‑long habit of reimagining himself.
Tour plans and the decision not to retire
Anka is set to tour in March 2026, preparing a leg of the A Man and His Music Tour. In a February 2026 interview he said he does not want to retire — "I know what retirement is. I don't want to retire. Let's say I do 75 days a year. I got the rest of the year to do what the hell I want. " He described live performance as uniquely energizing: "The moment you’re on there… you’re doing something unlike most things. To see the energy that comes back from all those people… every night is just better than the other. " He also said he spends downtime watching his hockey game and reading.
Songwriting, collaborators and a deep catalog
Anka’s catalog stretches beyond his own recordings. He wrote Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore, " "She's a Lady" for Tom Jones, the theme for The Tonight Show, and Frank Sinatra's signature "My Way. " He recalled Sinatra telling him he was thinking about retiring when Anka was 25; the anecdote in the record leaves some detail unclear in the provided context. Anka also worked with Michael Jackson on a demo in the 1980s that surfaced after Jackson died in 2009 — "They found these songs in a drawer, " Anka said — and "Love Never Felt So Good" became one of Jackson's last hits. More recently, in 2020 rapper and singer Doja Cat sampled Anka's "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" in "Freak, " a use that spawned a TikTok trend. At home outside Los Angeles he keeps more gold records than you can count, for both his own hits and those he penned for others.
Early start, language work and survival strategies
Anka dates his start in show business to about age 10 and launched as a star singing "Diana" at age 16 on American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show in 1957. He has remained on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for seven straight decades. As a teen idol he shed baby fat with a trainer and weights, learned Japanese, French, Spanish, German and Italian to record in multiple languages, and when the British Invasion changed radio tastes he pivoted to writing for others. He described spending time with the Rat Pack and in Las Vegas, noting that because he saw their doctors and their coughing he never became a smoker or a big drinker.
Controls on his catalog and approvals
Anka says he carefully controls commercial uses of his work—"Times of Your Life was the only commercial I ever did"—and that he personally looks at approval requests. "We carefully look at every request and we say no more than we say yes, " he said, adding that he is involved in every request and personally grants or denies approvals. He also affirmed a business partnership with Primary Wave, saying, "Primary Wave and I are partners and work very closely and very well together. "
