My Way

The song comes from Comme d'habitude, a 1967 French song by Claude Francois, with music by Jacques Revaux and Francois and a lyric by Gilles Thibaut. Paul Anka wrote the English words. He says he wrote it for Sinatra after a dinner at which Sinatra said he was quitting.

Sinatra recorded it on 30 December 1968 in a single take, with Sonny Burke producing and Don Costa arranging. It was released in early 1969 on the album My Way and as a single. It reached number 27 on the US Hot 100 and number 2 on the Easy Listening chart. In the UK it reached number five and spent 75 weeks in the top 40 between April 1969 and September 1971, a chart record.

Sinatra reportedly loathed the song. He is said to have called it a pop hit that became a kind of national anthem. His daughter Tina said in a 2000 BBC interview that he thought it self-serving and self-indulgent. It became a long-running funeral favorite in the UK, and Yseult sang it at the close of the 2024 Paris Olympics.