Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Music / MyWay

Go To

1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sinatra_my_way_album_cover.jpeg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[{{Pun}} The record]] shows I took the blows / And did it my way."'']]
3
4''My Way'' is the forty-ninth studio album by Music/FrankSinatra, released in 1969 through Creator/RepriseRecords. The record was notable because, for the first time ever, Sinatra covered RockAndRoll songs, a genre he had previously dismissed in a 1957 ''Los Angeles Mirror News'' article with the words:
5
6-> ''"My only deep sorrow is the unrelenting insistence of recording and motion picture companies upon purveying the most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious form of expression it has been my displeasure to hear— Naturally I refer to the bulk of rock ’n’ roll. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. It smells phony and false. It is sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons and by means of its almost imbecilic reiterations and sly, lewd—in plain fact, dirty—lyrics, and as I said before, it manages to be the martial music of every side-burned delinquent on the face of the earth … this rancid-smelling aphrodisiac I deplore. But, in spite of it, the contribution of [[AmericanMusic American music]] to the world could be said to have one of the healthiest effects of all our contributions."''
7
8By 1960, Sinatra seemed to have eased up enough about rock to sing a duet with Music/ElvisPresley, and nine years later, he ultimately had this album to show for it. It features covers of "Yesterday" by Music/TheBeatles and "Mrs. Robinson" by Music/SimonAndGarfunkel. (He also covered "Something" from ''Music/AbbeyRoad'' on a single, despite mistakenly attributing it to Music/JohnLennon and Music/PaulMcCartney instead of Music/GeorgeHarrison during concerts.) Other notable covers on the album included Music/RayCharles' "Hallelujah, I Love Her So", Music/JacquesBrel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas" (covered as "If You Go Away") and, of course, the TitleTrack, an English-language version of Music/ClaudeFrancois' "Comme d' Habitude", which subsequently went on to become Sinatra's SignatureSong and was CoveredUp in too many versions to list[[note]]the most notable being by Music/ElvisPresley and Music/SidVicious on his album ''Music/SidSings'' (1979) and, of all people, [[WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged Perfect Cell]][[/note]]. It got to the point where [[CreatorBacklash even Sinatra himself began to dislike the song]].
9
10----
11!! Tracklist:
12[[AC: Side One]]
13# "Watch What Happens" (2:17)
14# "Didn't We" (2:55)
15# "Hallelujah, I Love Her So" (2:47)
16# "Yesterday" (3:56)
17# "All My Tomorrows" (4:35)
18
19[[AC: Side Two]]
20[numlist:6]
21# "My Way" (4:35)
22# "A Day in the Life of a Fool" (3:00)
23# "For Once in My Life" (2:50)
24# "If You Go Away" (3:30)
25# "Mrs. Robinson" (2:55)
26[/numlist]
27
28----
29!! Tropes done my way...
30
31* AlliterativeTitle: "'''W'''atch '''W'''hat Happens"
32* BadassBoast: "My Way" is one entire badass boast from the start to finish, all the more impressive if you consider it to be from the viewpoint of someone at the end of his life, who may have had "times when he bit off more than he could chew", but still thinks that despite all he still came through.
33* BreakUpSong: "Yesterday" and "If You Go Away" both feature a protagonist depressed over the fact that his partner has left him.
34* CoverAlbum: All tracks are songs associated with other performers: "Hallelujah, I Love Her So" (Music/RayCharles), "Yesterday" (Music/TheBeatles, from ''Music/{{Help}}''), "A Day in the Life of a Fool" (originally by Luiz Bonfá and Antônio Maria as "Mañha de Carnaval" from ''Film/BlackOrpheus''), "If You Leave Me" (originally by Music/JacquesBrel as "Ne Me Quitte Pas"), "For Once in My Life" (Ron Miller and Orlando Murden, most famous in the 1968 version by Music/StevieWonder), "Didn't We" (Jimmy Webb, previously recorded by Creator/RichardHarris), "Watch What Happens" (Norman Gimbel, Music/MichelLegrand, and Creator/JacquesDemy), "Mrs. Robinson" (Music/SimonAndGarfunkel, from the album ''Bookends'') and "My Way" (originally by Music/ClaudeFrancois as "Comme d' Habitude", but the English lyrics are by Music/PaulAnka, who wrote them specifically with Sinatra in mind.).
35** And, funnily enough, "All My Tomorrows" was originally done by... Sinatra himself, in 1959 for the film ''A Hole in the Head''.
36* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: Thanks to the nature of Paul Anka's English lyrics for the song, "My Way" turns an AntiLoveSong about the ennui of a collapsing marriage into a story of someone learning to FaceDeathWithDignity.
37* FaceOnTheCover: Sinatra in the presence of a bunch of chairs.
38* GriefSong: "My Way" starts off as this, from the viewpoint of a man facing death after a full life. But as he looks back on his life he finds peace with himself, eventually concluding that, good or bad, he at least did it his own personal way.
39* IAmGreatSong: "My Way." Frank went on the record as disliking the song, but it fit his persona so perfectly that he was obliged to top off every concert with it.
40* OneWomanSong: "Mrs. Robinson"
41* PepTalkSong: "My Way"
42--> ''For what is a man, what has he got?''
43--> ''If not himself, then he has naught''
44--> ''To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels''
45--> ''The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!''
46* PopCulturalOsmosis: Nowadays "My Way" is mostly associated with karaoke bars, as it is the most popular choice for people to sing. In the Philippines, "My Way" has been so treasured that [[SeriousBusiness people have been ]]''[[SeriousBusiness killed ]]''[[SeriousBusiness for singing it incorrectly at karaoke bars]]. [[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/world/asia/07karaoke.html We're NOT making this up.]]
47* ThePowerOfLove: "Hallelujah, I Love Her So".
48* QuestioningTitle: "Didn't We", although the title itself technically lacks a question mark.
49* SeriousBusiness: The title track became infamous for a spate of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Way_killings killings]] in bars which arise from disputes concerning the song in question.
50* TitleTrack: "My Way".
51--> ''I lived a life that's full''\
52''I travelled each and every highway''\
53''And more, much more than this''\
54''I did it my way''.

Top