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Annette Funicello was born in Utica, New York on
October 22, 1942. Early in her childhood, her father moved the family to Los
Angeles, California for its warmer weather conditions and the prospect of better
employment opportunities. Annette's mother enrolled her in dance lessons to help
her overcome her shyness and it was through a dance recital that Walt Disney saw her and
requested that she audition to be a mouseketeer. With casting nearly complete, it
has been said that Annette was the final child cast as part of the original group of
mouseketeers hired for the first season of the show. Placed in a secondary role on
the program, Annette started to receive fan mail which outnumbered that received by her
peers. As a result of this, she was quickly moved to the lead group of children on
the show. Throughout the show's original production years from 1955-1957, Annette's
role in the program grew in prominence. Although all of the lead mouseketeers were
featured individually in various production numbers at one time or another, Annette earned
starring roles in the most popular serials made for the program. Other than Darlene
Gillespie, none of the other mouseketeers starred in any of the program's serials (except
for minor roles).
It was through an episode of the Annette serial, shown in the program's final season of
original episodes, that Annette sang a song entitled How will I know my love? The
song was intended to be a corny country song. Although the character she played in
this serial, country girl Annette McCloud, was ridiculed by a snobby character (played by
Roberta Shore) for singing the song, the song drew enough positive response that Walt
Disney signed Annette to his recently formed Disneyland Records label.
Annette has always been the first to admit that she does not possess a great talent for
singing. During her audition for the show, she reluctantly complied to sing for the
producers. Despite this, her enormous appeal generated a positive reaction to her
records. From the start, her records for Disney were produced by in house producer
Tutti Camarata. Although his musical background leaned toward classical music and
other more traditional fare, he easily adapted to the budding sounds of rock and roll.
After a couple releases on the Disneyland label (the first being How will I know my
love?), Annette caught the attention of the record buying public with her 3rd release Tall
Paul, which achieved top ten status during the summer of 1959. From there, more hit
singles and albums followed.
Her recording career lasted primarily from 1958 through 1967. After Tall Paul became
a hit, the Buena Vista record label was created and her subsequent records were released
on this label. The switch to this label was probably wise in that it eliminated the
perception that her records were intended as children's records. The Disneyland
label continued to be used for childrens releases and the Vista label became the outlet
Disney's for pop music aimed at the record charts.
Although her national hitmaking years continued only into 1961, her wide exposure through
television and movies made her records consistent sellers. During that era, regional
hit records were very common so it was not unusual for Annette or other artists to have
top 10 records in some cities or regions without the record ever entering Billboard or
other national charts. Annette's last official release for the Vista label came in
1965 with No way to go but up. A couple soundtrack albums were released on other
labels and one additional single was released on the Tower records label. This
represented the final output of Annette's records during the 1960s.
During the 1980's, Annette and Frankie released a Christmas single and additionally,
Annette released a country music album and a related single. The album was produced
with the aid of her current husband Glenn Holt and featured both new compositions and some
country standards.
The continued interest in Annette throughout the years has kept interest high for these
original recordings. Add to that the fact that the production quality of her records
was very high and that they featured some of the best album covers and picture
sleeves of the era, prices continue to increase for these items. |