Paul Anka on stage at Massey Hall on Thursday, October 14, 2010 in Toronto. (Veronica Henri, QMI Agency)

TORONTO - Look in the dictionary under crowd pleaser and there's bound to be a very tanned, tiny picture of Paul Anka staring back at you.

The 69-year-old Ottawa-born singer-composer with the still-big voice came to Massey Hall on Thursday night to help kick off the four-day Canada Walk Of Fame festival to celebrate Saturday's induction of the class of 2010:Singers David Clayton-Thomas, Nelly Furtado, actor Eric McCormack and SarahPolley, the late magician Doug Henning, speed skater-cyclist Clara Hughes, and author Farley Mowat.

And the former teen idol, who was himself inducted in 2005, didn't hold back.

Oh, no, the ultra-smooth Anka definitely did it - wait for it - his way.

Making an entrance through the centre door on the floor, the compact, energetic singer bounded through the crowd, shaking hands, hugging and kissing audience members while singing his breakthrough song, Diana, as a 14 piece orchestra, including seven horn players, blasted the tune on stage.

He even climbed up on chairs to sing at one point and would do it again and again as the show progressed.

"I just wanted to get that G-D song the hell out of the way," said the nattily dressed Anka, when he was finally on stage. "It's good to be home!"

From there, he took the audience through his impressive five-decade songbook and career for just over two hours.

Included were vintage clips and photos of his teen idol days, appearances on Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, Dean Martin, and Jackie Gleason, pictures with such greats as Elvis, The Beatles and, of course, Frank Sinatra, (Anka performed My Way naturally), plus a touching performance of Sammy Davis Jr. from a '70s TV special singing Anka's I'm Not Anyone while smoking a cigarette.

Anka also did a duet with recorded vocals from Michael Jackson on This Is It, which they wrote together in the early '80s, during the night's most somber moment, and paid tribute to other late singers like Bobby Darin and Buddy Holly with performances of Mack The Knife and It Doesn't Matter Anymore, the latter featuring Anka strumming an acoustic guitar while four of his bandmates played in semi-circle around him.

But it was the seemingly spontaneous interactions with the audience that really set Anka apart like singing into someone's cell phone, dancing with a woman in the front row during or letting a man take over on lead vocals while hugging him from behind, and so on.

Sure, there was major cheese along the way - a swing version of Van Halen's Jump anyone? - not to mention the '70s so-bad-it's-good classic (You're) Having My Baby but Anka is such a pro that he made it all pretty digestible even when he was telling pretty bad jokes while seated at the piano.

"The '50s were great, the '60s sucked," said Anka, who had to make way for the invasion by The Fab Four and moved to Italy for a while.

"It's okay - evolution. Everybody gets their turn."

And when an audience member shouted out a request for his Italian hit, Ogni Volta, Anka was happy to oblige - a crowd pleaser to the end.