WINNIPEG -- He's not your grandparents' Paul Anka anymore.

Or then again, maybe he is. Truth be told, it was kinda hard to tell the difference at Anka's local show last night, especially since the Canadian-born crooner kept switching up his Baby Boomer anthems with swing-jazz covers of classic rock and pop hits.

But even after 50 years in the business, Anka -- the 66-year-old showman who's taken to billing himself as the "original Canadian Idol" -- still has the energy, the enthusiasm, and above all, the enduring talent to turn in a Vegas-style spectacle with all-ages appeal.

Last night's show marked the first stop on Anka's Canadian tour, launched to coincide with his half-century milestone, and the release of his new greatest hits disc.

And while a hold-up at the border delayed his arrival a bit, the Concert Hall crowd of 1,700 or so didn't have to wait too long for the magic to get started.

As the 15-piece orchestra wrapped up an instrumental medley, the spotlights swung suddenly to the left of the venue, revealing Anka, looking impossibly well-preserved, making his way through the rows.

The fans barely had time to catch their breath before he'd finished up his first No. 1 hit Diana, though a lady in the first row complied without hesitation when he got to the "Kiss me, baby" lyric.

And though he eventually made his way to the stage -- trussed up to look like a ballroom -- it wasn't long before he'd jumped back into the crowd, happily posing for photographs or pausing to slow-dance with star-struck seniors.

"It's an anniversary for me this month -- I've been doing this for 50 years now," Anka quipped. "That's right, I started when I was eight."

OK, so Anka's one-liners might be musty, but his vocal capabilities haven't diminished one bit, as he made clear while hitting the high notes on For Once in My Life, (All of a Sudden) My Heart Sings, Do I Love You and Papa.

For Times of Your Life, Anka screened a slide-show of old photos that charted his progress from dark-eyed teen idol to doting father. And after hauling out old standards like Puppy Love, Put Your Head on my Shoulder and Having My Baby, he also won over some new fans with a cover of Van Halen's Jump (allowing his horn section to fill in the iconic synth-intro that Winnipeg Jets fans know so well).

Anka prefers to sequence his fuller-throated numbers one after another (resulting in a setlist that's sometimes exhausting), but his most heartfelt moments came when he paused to pay tribute to fallen colleagues like Bobby Darin, Buddy Holly, and Sammy Davis Jr. -- evendueting with the latter thanks to some video-screen footage from the '70s.

And certainly, the voice, the theatrics, the band and the bombast all came in handy for My Way, a tune Anka wrote the words to, but Frank Sinatra made famous.

Legends like Frank and Sammy may not be with us any longer, but at least we've still got Anka to remind us how it's done.

4 out of 5