Customer Reviews

Rock Swings

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

This is the kind of album you can't simply hear about, you MUST actually hear it to appreciate it. I wish Amazon's sound clips were a higher quality. anyway - Anka the songwriter slays on this album filled with covers.

This is impeccably recorded, brilliantly performed, and Anka sings & swings his heart out. The arrangements are so well done that we may see some kids trying to sign up to play trombone at their local high school band room. ok well. maybe not.... but these charts swing their Butt off!

Anka the songwiter chose great songs to completely re-arrange for big band. The saving grace here is that these versions sound nothing at all like the original and somehow they all work completely in this new form....

I never ever thought i would be singing the praises of Mr. Paul Anka, yet he deserves these accolades and more for putting together such a great record. Buy 3 and give one away to your dad and one away to your younger brother....they'll love you for it!

I really enjoy this CD. I realize these arrangements may be jolting to those who are familiar with the originals. I was jolted a bit, too. However, I also enjoy this style of music and if you can allow yourself to disconnect from memories of the originals and let these arrangements stand on their own, they really are quite good. The band and orchestra provide a solid background to Anka's voice. There's a nice mix of up-tempo and ballad. Bridging musical styles is not new for Paul Anka, of course. At the same time he was enjoying success as a "Top-40" singer in the 60's, he was composing such pieces as The Tonight Show Theme, the big-band tune that was heard at the beginning of the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. If you enjoy the style of music usually referred to as "standards," you'll enjoy this collection. I would suggest that it's a testimony to the strength of these songs that they can be done well in more than one style. This is a very nice collection of music.

I bought Rock Swings, because I wanted to see how a legend like Paul Anka would sing these rock and pop and songs from the 80s and 90s. I loved the song selection on this album.

My favorite track is his cover of the Eric Clapton's song Tears in Heaven. I think he sings this song about pain and loss beautifully. Another highlight track on this CD is BlackHole Sun. The piano playing by Mike Lang on this track are so good. The bass guitar playing on the track Hello is so smooth and subtle. It gives the song a very romantic tone. His vocals on the song Everybody Hurts is very soothing. I really liked it. Smells like Teen Spirit is another one of my favorites on this CD. I can finally understand the words to this song now. The trumpet playing by Charlie Davis and trombone playing by Steve Higgins are very good on this track. They give this song a very upbeat sound that I really liked. Anka's cover of Van's Halen's Jump sounds pretty good. I liked the saxophone and drum playing on this track. Another standout on this album is Anka's cover of the song Wonderwall. All of the instruments are featured on this track, and they sound groovy. Rock Swings is truly a pleasure to listen to.

I don't live in the record store, and on the rare occasion I was there most recently, I just surfed the aisles looking for 'something' ... have you ever had that down feeling about where music is at that you actually find yourself picking up and staring at CDs you ALREADY own? ... It was one of those days. But, suddenly, over the speaker was this voice - I figured he was one of those 'new' crooners in the style of Frank, etc., but I didn't recognize the song ... it was beautiful - a hint of some recognition came. Finally, I realized it was a "Tears in Heaven" ... the voice was pure and so beautiful. I thought, "THIS new crooner is going to make it." Well, long story short, it was Paul Anka, of course. Funny, when I was five, my favorite song that I wore out the groove on was "Times of Your Life." Needless to say, I bought the CD, and I do love it. I'm guessing this kid might make it after all. ... I was silly to have some preconception that Paul Anka was perhaps a pretender in some way - not really having that deep well of sensitivity, however masked in masculinity, that say Frank or a few others had/have. This is the guy who WROTE "My Way," after all. This album dispelled any doubt I had - granted, it was my first Paul Anka album. His voice is imbued with such vulnerability and sensitivity ... and beauty. People make a fuss about the latest 'crooner' who is supposedly the reincarnation of Sinatra, etc., but, when I hear them - wanting to like them, I just hear boring wanna-be's, devoid of that ineffable 'it' that makes you know they feel it and get YOU. Anka has the real thing that I've missed from them in spades. ... And, no, Paul Anka is not 30 years old. But, you'd never know it in some ways on this album. The only thing that gives him away is the soulful touch that tells you this is a man who's lived a bit. ... Any fear of parody is quelled fast - there is obvious respect for every lyric, and he throws himself into the songs, living in them. It's actually masterful. When the furor ceases from some who consider such an album blasphemy - hell, did Elvis Presley EVER read a good word written about him when he was alive - this album will stand up proudly for what it is: a singer at the top of his game, and offering something very real. Hell, even I had an eyebrow raised at such a brave album, but he's too deep inside each song to be touched. There are those who will always scream at such an undertaking; for the rest, listen, love, and maybe even learn. The love that went into this album is present at every beat, lick, and turn. Turn it up, and just enjoy.

Let's start off with the fact that I am in my early fourties. And I have never been a Paul Anka fan. A coworker of mine told me about this album of Anka doing 80s and 90s songs with a big band sound. The first thing I thought of was Joe Piscopo's Sinatra impersonation where he is butchering Rolling Stones and Springstein songs. "It's down to meeeee, The change has come--Thumb!" When I heard it though, it was anything but that.

Somehow Anka pulls it off the way Michael Buble pulls off covers of Queen, Van Morison and George Michaels. Since Anka was the producer on Buble's first album it's not surprising he's taking his hand at the same technique--and shining.

Honestly, I hear a lot of Bobby Darin in these songs. Darin could also take songs (like Charade and That's All) and put his unique twist on them to make them sound fresh and unique. Many people had the same negative reaction to Darin's rendition of Kurt Weil's "Mack the Knife". Now it's the version that everyone considers the standard. Not that I expect Anka's versions of these songs to become the standard, but had the songs on this CD never been released by contemporary artists it would definitely stand on its own. Try to forget the originals when you're listening. If Darin were still alive today this is what he would sound like and what he would be singing.

The arrangements are lush, the sound infectious. I gave it four stars because I really enjoyed the uptempo songs. The slower ballads, though, I felt were a little weak. On these songs Anka's voice and tone lacked a certain quality and sincerity I appreciate from singers like Mel Torme or Ella Fitzgerald when they are singing other artists material. Ironically, I don't have the same problem with Anka when he's singing one of his own original ballads.

When Devo recorded their version of the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction" a rerporter asked Mick Jagger what he thought. "I like theirs better" was his reply. I doubt Mr. Anka would get the same reply from any of the artists covered on this album but, hey, you never know.

I read a review of "Rock Swings" and had to hear it for myself. Paul Anka actually recorded "Smells Like Teen Spirit"--are you kidding me?! What could he do with that? Well, he did plenty. It's stupendous! I loved the tunes so much that I picked up the whole album, which is rare for me. I usually download only one or two songs from an album. The arrangements sound as if they were very old tried and true classics. I can't wait to crank up my stereo. Paul Anka just keeps getting better and better!

This is an album to be taken seriously as Anka treats the music with respect. It's very different from seemingly comparable offerings by people like Pat Boone where the joke gets old after just a few minutes, and that's because it was always tongue in cheek in the first place.

Anka has the pedigree to deliver top-notch swing music and he does it in top form with an eclectic selection of rock, pop and grunge covers. Adding to the surprise is that the selections that seem least appropriate for swing covers tend to be the best like "Blackhole Sun" (Soundgarden), "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Nirvana), "Hello" (Lionel Ritchie) and "Eyes Without a Face" (Billy Idol.) An effect is to make the originals seem more genuine and meaningful, as if the lyrics really mattered to the original author.

It's amazing how Anka and the producers showed such an uncanny knack for selecting songs that would work in a swing-format. To be clear, there are clunkers like "Way You Make Me Feel" and "Tears in Heaven" but they are heavily out-weighed by great tracks. A true cross-over recording that should appeal to fans of "The Chairman of the Board" and also to fans of the genres it draws from.

In a time when it seems every vocalist on the planet is rehashing "old standards" in an attempt to rejuvenate their career (or out of respect to the Tin Pan masters, if you're less cynical than I am), Paul Anka boldly goes in the other direction and tests the waters with more recent rock hits set to a swing arrangement. At first I had visions of Pat Boone and his hilarious attempt to give heavy metal its due a few years ago (at the urging of his neighbor at the time, Ozzie Osbourne). While Pat's opus ended up in the novelty cut-out bin, this CD has serious street cred. Granted, not all of the tunes grab you, but the ones that do stick in your head. Lately, I can't go more than two days without laying the needle down (so to speak) on "Jump", "It's My Life", or "Wonderwall". The arrangements are top-notch and Anka's voice sounds better at 64 than it did at 22. I also like the fact that he gives a nod to two ballads that I always thought were overlooked gems -- "True" and "Everybody Hurts". A few misses but the hits are compelling enough to carry the whole CD. It really made me want to see him perform in person -- something that never occurred to me before!

When I first heard about this CD, I was pretty skeptical, but once I heard it I was an instant convert. Yes, the song selection can be seen as kitschy and ironic, but the arrangements and the performances swing so hard, you forget all about the fact that it's Paul Anka covering the likes of Nirvana and Bon Jovi! I was bracing myself for it to be cheesy, but it's really fantastic (and something I'll likely be listening to for years to come).

I first heard of this album on an NPR interview. Delving a little more deeply, listening to the tiny snippets offered on Amazon, I was hooked. HAD to buy the album. Having now played it through several times, I gotta say... THIS IS GREAT! Anka has taken "classic" tracks from the 80's and 90's and made them timeless. I am especially tickled by the 1st track, Bon Jovi's "It's My Life," because one of the key lines is "...Like Frank said I'll do it my way..." Anka, of course, WROTE Sinatra's huge hit "My Way."
Not every track here is a winner, though. "True" and "Hello" are nearly remakes of the originals. (Though to my mind, still excellent.) "It's a Sin" suffers by comparison to the dance-oriented original. It holds up, but it could've been better. "Tears in Heaven" NEVER needed to be re-recorded. It was maudlin and just overall bad the first time around. Definitely a down note on which to end such a great collection.
Standouts here are "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Black Hole Sun" and "Eyes Without a Face." Coming in at a very close second are "Jump," "Wonderwall," and "Eye of the Tiger."
I played this disc for a few people at the office I work at, and the overall impression was MORE than favorable - 5 out of 8 people wanted copies of their own. Yeah, it's that good.
Ignore the detractors, especially those who may compare this to the abysmal Pat Boone recording of a few years ago, "In a Metal Mood." That disc had no style, no substance, and no panache. THIS disc has it all. I can't rate it highly enough!