My Summer Lair Chapter #345: What Does Paul Anka Mean To You?
Who is up for some sweet Paul Anka?
Oh, yes: you gotta #SetTheVCR for Paul Anka: His Way now streaming on HBO Max (in America) and on Crave (in Canada). This documentary requires a cigar and a tea. Paul Anka is magic and this sonic legend is long overdue for a documentary.
I saw this infectiously fun documentary back at Toronto International Film Festival 2024. Oh, son…I was grooving in my seat.
This MSL conversation with filmmaker John Maggio highlights why I’m so happy hosting this podcast.
We unpack his previous doc works including A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks, The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee (the newspaper editor at the Washington Post during the Watergate era) and Music Box: Mr. Saturday Night (a disco documentary produced by Bill Simmons as part of HBO’s Music Box anthology series.). And how those, often historical docs connect to his Paul Anka documentary. (All those docs are on HBO Max and on Crave. I recommend them all! Big John Maggio fan.)
John was in a band The Crosswalk (with Cody Chesnutt!) which is amazing as it gives him a musician’s perspective about Paul Anka’s work.
John is an Italian-American and Paul Anka rolled with gangsters. So we talked about Scorsese’s GoodFellas—an utterly magnificent film. Of course, it’s well known Martin Scorsese is an Italian-American, proud of his heritage. Yet this was the first time I talked to an Italian-American filmmaker about these mafia movies…Goodfellas and Godfather.
(Which yes…I know Scorsese didn’t direct but it’s the collective romance and the impressive swagger of these mafia characters. I miss wiseguys who take it to the mattresses and enter a venue through the kitchen.)
Wait until you hear John and I talk about Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show…and perhaps it’s related to Paul Anka rolling with gangsters. (The Johnny Carson scene in Paul Anka: His Way, as well when John and I get into that on this MSL episode…neatly reflects the mafia elements Anka clearly absorbed. As if the mob was a business school; which technically it is.)
This documentary, Paul Anka: His Way and even Paul Anka is all a beautiful link to the past…this is how we got here. Truthfully, John shares this hope for Paul Anka: His Way: “ They know the music, they don’t know the man. So my hope is they get to know Paul Anka a little bit through this film and then attach it to the music. They’re gonna be blown away.”
I coulda talked to John for hours…Paul Anka, son. What a life and what a career.
John Maggio @ W • T • F
Host Sammy Younan
Recorded: Monday, December 1, 2025 at 10:30 am (EST)
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