After a day of barbering, Rodolfo Gregorio went to his neighborhood karaoke bar still smelling of talcum powder.

Putting aside his glass of Red Horse Extra Strong beer, he grasped a microphone with a habitué’s self-assuredness and briefly stilled the room with the Platters’ “My Prayer.” Next, he belted out crowd-pleasers by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. But Mr. Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fistfights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke singing, did not dare choose one beloved classic: Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way.” “I used to like ‘My Way,’ but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,” he said. “You can get killed.”

In 1967, French singer Claude François wrote a song in French called Comme d'habitude ("As Usual"), which became a hit in Francophone countries. Canadian singing star Paul Anka reworked it for the English-speaking public into the now legendary hit most famously sung by Frank Sinatra as "My Way".

It now turns out that the song is responsible for numerous deaths in the Philippine karaoke circuit. The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fuelled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”

The killings have produced urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings the natural by-product of the country’s culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song? Claude François himself died in 1978. He was not killed in a karaoke bar but got electrocuted in his own bath, when he tried to change a light bulb.

Sounds like he did it his way...

I did it Myyyy Waaaayyy!

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