About the song
Few songs carry the weight of finality, pride, and personal reflection quite like ***Elvis Presley – My Way***. Originally a French melody titled “Comme d’habitude,” the song was famously reworked into English by Paul Anka and became most closely associated with Frank Sinatra. However, ***Elvis Presley’s*** interpretation—particularly in his later years—brought an entirely different layer of poignancy, intimacy, and raw vulnerability that sets his version apart.
By the time ***Elvis Presley*** recorded ***My Way***, he was no longer the swiveling-hip heartthrob who revolutionized American music in the 1950s. He was a man who had lived a life full of soaring highs and devastating lows. That reality echoes through every line of the song. When he sings, “And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain,” you can hear not just the weariness, but a kind of emotional accounting—a summing-up of a life lived under intense public scrutiny.
What makes ***Elvis’*** rendition so affecting is how it departs from slick showmanship and enters the realm of personal testimony. There’s a cracked nobility in his delivery, a sense that he’s singing not just to an audience, but to himself. His voice, once powerful and commanding, carries the strain of time, and that aging makes the message of ***My Way*** all the more authentic. The result is a musical eulogy of sorts—one that resonates with anyone who’s ever looked back on their life and wondered whether they lived it on their own terms.
While ***Sinatra’s*** version is urbane and controlled, ***Elvis Presley’s My Way*** is heartfelt and mortal. It is the voice of a man who has stumbled, soared, and suffered, but who, in the end, takes solace in the fact that he did things “his way.” For older listeners, the song becomes more than a performance—it becomes a companion in the journey of reckoning, regret, and redemption. It reminds us that dignity doesn’t come from perfection, but from honesty. And in this rendition, ***Elvis Presley*** is achingly, unmistakably honest.
Video
Lyrics
And now the end is near
So I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear
I’ll state my case of which I’m certain
I’ve lived a life that’s full
I’ve traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way
Regrets, I’ve had a few
But then again, too
Few to mention
I did what I had to do
And now the end is near
So I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear
I’ll state my case of which I’m certain
I’ve lived a life that’s full
I’ve traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way
Regrets, I’ve had a few
But then again, too
Few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way
Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way
I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried
I’ve had my fill, my share of losing
And now as tears subside
I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way
Oh, no, no not me
I did it my way
For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the words he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way
