About The Song
“My Home Town” came out in 1960, right in the middle of Paul Anka’s early hit streak on ABC-Paramount. He wrote it himself and released it as a single with “Something Happened” on the B-side (catalog number commonly listed as ABC-Paramount 45-10106). Coming immediately after “Puppy Love” and before “Hello Young Lovers,” it reads like a deliberate pause in his teen-romance run—still personal, but aimed at place and memory rather than a single relationship drama.
What makes the record feel different is the way it’s dressed. The arrangement and conducting credit goes to Sid Feller, a seasoned bandleader/arranger whose name shows up across pop and jazz sessions of the era. Putting Feller on a Paul Anka single gave “My Home Town” a broader, more “grown-up” frame than a typical teen-pop rocker: it leans on an easy, strolling tempo and a bright, polished orchestration that makes the lyric sound like a postcard you can actually hear.
The story in the lyric is uncomplicated on purpose: the narrator walks familiar streets, points out the everyday landmarks, and ties the comfort of the town to being close to the person he loves. Instead of building a plot twist, the song works by stacking details that feel universal—main street, summer-night atmosphere, the sense that everything is “right” because it’s home. That directness was part of Anka’s early brand: conversational writing, simple phrases, and melodies built to stick on radio without needing you to study them.
Commercially, it landed exactly where a strong Anka single was supposed to land in 1960. “My Home Town” reached No. 8 on the U.S. pop chart and also hit No. 10 on Canada’s CHUM chart. Interestingly, the flip side wasn’t dead weight: “Something Happened” charted as well (peaking around No. 41 in the U.S.), which tells you how much audience attention Anka commanded at the time—people were buying the record, listening to both sides, and radio programmers had reason to keep him in rotation.
Another detail that often gets overlooked is how long these records stayed “in play.” Billboard’s year-end accounting for 1960 ranked “My Home Town” at No. 77 on the Year-End Hot 100 list. That kind of placement is less about a single explosive week and more about steady performance across months—exactly the pattern you’d expect from a clean, radio-friendly song that could sit comfortably next to everything from doo-wop to early soul as the decade turned.
Like a lot of Anka’s early singles, “My Home Town” didn’t remain only a 45. It was later gathered onto releases such as “Big 15, Volume 2” (a compilation-style album credit that appears in discography listings),i, which is how many listeners encountered it in the LP era. And the song kept traveling: sources that track cover versions note recordings by artists like César Costa in the early 1960s, and decades later Juan Gabriel revisited it in collaboration with Anka—proof that the tune’s “home” theme could be adapted well beyond its original teen-pop moment.
He was still a teenager when his career took off, but “My Home Town” hints at why he lasted: he could write a hook, yes, but he also knew how to shift the subject slightly and keep the public with him. In 1960, a song about hometown pride and everyday happiness was a smart way to widen the frame—keeping the voice intimate while pointing it outward to something listeners could share, no matter where they lived.
Video
Lyric
I took a little trip to my home town
I only stopped just to look around
And as I walked along the thorough-fare
There was music playing everywhere
The music came from within my heart
How did it happen, how did it start?
I only know that I fell in love
I guess the answer lies up above
Oh, what a feeling
My heart was reeling
The bells were ringing
The birds were singing
And so the music, it goes on and on
All through the night until the break of dawn
I hear a birdie up in the tree
I hear him sing this melody
And so he sings
Ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya-ya (ya-ya-ya-ya)
Ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya-ya (ya-ya-ya-ya)
Ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya-ya (ya-ya-ya-ya)
Ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya-ya (ya-ya-ya-ya)
Oh, what a feeling
My heart was reeling
The bells were ringing
The birds were singing
And so the music, it goes on and on
All through the night until the break of dawn
And every evening, when the sun goes down
I’m with my love in my home town
And so I sing
Ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya-ya (ya-ya-ya-ya)
Ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya-ya (ya-ya-ya-ya, Ho-ho-ho-ho)
Ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya-ya (ya-ya-ya-ya)
Ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya-ya (ya-ya-ya-ya)