Tenth Musee

When I was seven or eight, my parents and maternal grandmother took me on my first trip to Las Vegas for my birthday.  Apparently, the lounge-factor was high in me from an early age as I picked that destination and they were more than happy to oblige. This was before Vegas went through it’s “family friendly” phase, so in the early ‘80s, it wasn’t common to see kids running amok.  There weren’t any roller coasters or arcades. If you had kids, you stayed at Circus Circus or you stayed home.  But, being an only child at the time, I was hardly the “run amok” type.  I hung with the grown-ups.

We stayed at Caesar’s Palace, with my grandmother and me in one room and my parents in another.  The whole trip was awesome, what I can remember of it.  We had cocktails (Shirley Temples for me!) at The Dunes (where Bellagio is now), we saw a topless review at a pre-fire MGM (my dad slipped the maitre d’ a bill to let me in) featuring Charo of Love Boat fame and dined at Stardust, who had my favorite sign in Vegas and now is gone.  And, finally, we saw Paul Anka at Caesar’s.

I honestly don’t recall a lot of detail from that particular show, just the overall sense of how much I loved it.  I can’t say I’ve thought of or listened to much Paul Anka since then, but on my way home last night on the local jazz station, they played a swingin’ cover of Foreigner’s “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and by god, if it wasn’t Paul Anka.  He’s got a new CD out called Classic Songs: My Way that features covers of classic pop or rock songs done in a big band/swing/lounge style.  I don’t love every track (I could do without the duet of My Way with Bon Jovi), but the majority of them are good and worth the price of admission. 

He did a previous CD called Rock Swings, which was featured on an illasounds podcast Ross did earlier this year, I think, but it’s offline now or I’d link it.  I took the liberty of uploading a track from this new Paul Anka for your listening enjoyment.  If you like it, I highly recommend getting the whole shebang.

Paul Anka – Waiting for a Girl Like You

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It’s mean to stream.