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I have loved the music of the 20s & 30s since I was a teen, but I just ran across this singer, Annette Hanshaw, in a random social media post about her.
Born in 1901, her parents owned a music store, where she sang the new sheet music numbers. She wanted to be a painter and studied art for two years, but she kept being pulled toward singing. After impromptu gigs in Florida while on family vacations, she recorded for Pathe, then Columbia and several other dime store labels. She recorded 250 sides and sold some four million records through the early thirties, and appeared in one short film.
A radio magazine poll placed her at number one, the most popular female singer in America, opposite BING CROSBY as the number one male.
I'd never heard of her, and now I'm listening to nothing else. She's no Merman, but her voice is very evocative of the time. She was known as The Personality Girl and closed her recordings with a cheerful "that's all!"
She hated show business, hated radio, hated recording. She did it for the money, she said. She was always terrified that she might screw up or cough.
Going by eBay, her recordings ain't cheap, but I found one I could manage and it's on its way. She's now at the top of my 78 search. She recorded under a different name for every label, it seems, which complicates things.
She got a bump revival in 2008 when the animated film, Sita Sings the Blues used her recordings.
As an intro, look for
Daddy Won't You Please Come Home?
I Get the Blues When It Rains.
I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling
Mean to Me
She's plentiful on Apple Music and Youtube.
Born in 1901, her parents owned a music store, where she sang the new sheet music numbers. She wanted to be a painter and studied art for two years, but she kept being pulled toward singing. After impromptu gigs in Florida while on family vacations, she recorded for Pathe, then Columbia and several other dime store labels. She recorded 250 sides and sold some four million records through the early thirties, and appeared in one short film.
A radio magazine poll placed her at number one, the most popular female singer in America, opposite BING CROSBY as the number one male.
I'd never heard of her, and now I'm listening to nothing else. She's no Merman, but her voice is very evocative of the time. She was known as The Personality Girl and closed her recordings with a cheerful "that's all!"
She hated show business, hated radio, hated recording. She did it for the money, she said. She was always terrified that she might screw up or cough.
Going by eBay, her recordings ain't cheap, but I found one I could manage and it's on its way. She's now at the top of my 78 search. She recorded under a different name for every label, it seems, which complicates things.
She got a bump revival in 2008 when the animated film, Sita Sings the Blues used her recordings.
As an intro, look for
Daddy Won't You Please Come Home?
I Get the Blues When It Rains.
I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling
Mean to Me
She's plentiful on Apple Music and Youtube.