This sounds as much of an r’n'r parody as Anthony Newley’s (very good) I’ve Waited So Long, even though there was babysat sincerity under the layers of brylcreem. Diana is the r’n'r sound that informed Grease, rather than the Johnny Burnette Trio, which may explain my squeamishness with it.

Mind you, Anka’s appropriately titled Crazy Love from ‘58 is so hysterically hiccuped it comes out the other side of parody, like the early Gary Glitter hits, and is quite brilliant. GG, maybe not coincidentally, later covered Anka’s Lonely Boy.

The man himself is, as DJP has reminded us, really quite unpleasant.

I remember in the early 80s, when trips to the pub became a regular event, the Portrait Of A Legend series was often on when I got home. It opened with a stentorian American voice - “Portrait of a legend…. this week, the Bee Gees” - followed by an innocuous snipped quote from the programme - “and Saturday Night Fever was quite successful, you see”.

The quote that followed “Portrait of a legend… this week, Paul Anka” was a 40-something Anka smirking “Yeeeahhh, I guess you could call me a legend.”

The following half hour was on a similar level of arrogant, accidental hilarity. His ashen-faced horror at the British Invasion: “All of a sudden, I was lost in this wall-to-wall wave of rock music”

It’s etched in my memory 25 years later. Anyone got any Portraits Of A Legend on tape?

As ever with the eximious Mr Anka, I feel duty bound to draw readers’ attention (though I’m sure you all know it already) to this extraordinary Pinteresque soliloquy:

http://www.noisetank.com/integrity/