Paul Anka: Rock Swings

"Rock Swings" works better than most contenders in the "stuffy pop idol goes modern" genre, but it's still a gimmicky construct. Paul gives his all, though, and proves himself still quite adept at interpretation, even when the point of the material eludes him.

Pat Boone. William Shatner. Paul Anka? Yes, pop's golden punchlines have found a second career in laughing at their own staid corniness, grafting their voice (and, more importantly, their personality) onto Songs The Kids Will Know and capturing two marketplaces at once. "Rock Swings" is better than most of the recent CDs in this category, mainly because Anka was a real singer/songwriter with a real career once, even if that career didn't thrill the critics any more than Pat's and Bill's did.

Still, Anka as a swinger? Maybe. This is the man who wrote the Tonight Show theme, after all, and he fares well with these Eighties and Nineties rock and pop standards. It works best when Anka's given songs that have a natural swing built in (Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel," The Cure's "Lovecats"), or that resonate with a hipster's sensibility (Van Halen's "Jump," Pet Shop Boys' "It's A Sin"), or that simply work well as pop (Lionel Richie's "Hello," R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts").

So this is more of a "real" album than a gimmick, although the joke keeps poking its ugly head through when Anka takes on a song whose sensibilities he can't hope to comprehend (Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," which Leif Garrett has already nailed, thank you very much). And while it may not be the swingingest album you've ever heard, it does make a good case for Anka as a still-vital performer. And that was almost certainly the point.