Paul always laughed it off. He’d written hits for other people, but something for Sinatra? That was different. Maybe a little intimidating.

Then one night in the late 1960s, everything changed. Frank and Paul met for dinner, and Sinatra told him something unexpected. What he said that night would lead Paul Anka to sit down at the piano a few nights later and write one of the most iconic songs in music history.

This is the story behind “My Way”—the friendship, the challenge, and the moment a song was born that would define Frank Sinatra for the rest of his life.