In 1969, Frank Sinatra released “My Way,” much to the irritation of a young David Bowie . Bowie was still in the early stages of his career, and had written English lyrics to the French song “Comme d’habitude.” His version of the song went nowhere, but the lyrics songwriter Paul Anka wrote became a massive success when Sinatra sang them.
While Bowie said this angered him, he acknowledged that his own version of the song wasn’t great. David Bowie wrote lyrics for a song that eventually went to Frank Sinatra In the 1960s, many songwriters rewrote popular European songs with English lyrics. Bowie hoped to do so with “Comme d’habitude.
” He called his version of the song “Even a Fool Learns to Love.” “There was a time, the laughing time / I took my heart to every party / They’d point my way, how are you today? / Will you make us laugh? Chase our blues away? / Their funny man won’t let them down, no, he’d dance and prance and be their clown / That time, the laughing time, when even a fool learns to love,” he wrote for the first verse, per People . His version of the song didn’t go far, and he later described it as “god awful” and “terrible.
” Still, he felt annoyed when he heard the song playing on the radio with Anka’s lyrics . David Bowie wrote a response to the Frank Sinatra song Bowie said that when he first heard “My Way,” he immediately recognized it as his song . “I sent it back again and I thought that will be the last I hear.
