Annette Funicello - The Best of Annette

Annette

Obviously, the collection is far from complete but it does give a good sample of Annette's music. The Monkey's Uncle alone is worth puchasing this for April 26, 2008

Hardly Her Best

I have to agree with those reviewers who point out that this feeble effort from Disney hardly measures up in terms of offering her best selections.

From 1959 to 1961 she put ten songs into the Billboard Pop Hot 100, and here they give us all of three: Tall Paul, which was her best, going to # 7 early in 1959 on the Disneyland label; Train Of Love, a # 36 in summer 1960, along with its flipside, Tell Me Who's The Girl]; and Pineapple Princess, a # 11 in September 1960.

Left off this volume are her second- and fourth-best hits - O Dio Mio which reached # 10 in April 1960, and First Name Initial which hit the # 20 spot late in 1959. On that one, in fact, she did something The Beatles could not do - cross over to the R&B charts, reaching # 27. The flipside, My Heart Became Of Age, also charted at # 74 Hot 100.

Other missing hits are: Jo-Jo The Dog-Faced Boy [# 73 in May 1959]; Lonely Guitar [# 50 in August 1959]; Talk To Me Baby [# 92 in January 1961]; and Dream Boy [# 87 in February 1961]. On all her hits except Jo-Jo, Lonely Guitar, and O Dio Mio the records showed "Annette with The Afterbeats" and, except for Tall Pall, all her hits were released on Disney's Buena Vista label.

Amazon does offer another Annette compilation from Disney, a 2-CD set under the title: Annette: a Musical Reunion with America's Girl Next Door [ASIN B00000EJUJ]. Even that one, however, comes up a bit short in that it does not include Talk To Me Baby, nor several of the B-sides of her hits.

I have what is likely the best Annette compilation on the market today, in terms of her hits, entitled Annette's Scrapbook - The 31 Greatest Hits Of Annette. This was released by Silhouette Music on SM CD 10011. Even here, however, they do not give you Talk To Me Baby nor Dream Boy (but inexplicably do provide the uncharted flipsides I Love You Baby and Please, Please Signore). Two other B-sides omitted are Love Me Forever (b/o Jo-Jo), and Luau Cha-Cha-Cha (b/o Pineapple Princess).

So it would seem that finding the definitive Annette "best of" remains impossible until, that is, Disney allows someone like Bear Family, Ace of London, or Eric Records to put together a proper compilation. August 23, 2007

Pineapple Princess

I did not know Annette, and but "Pineapple Princess "and "Let's Get Together" were good and knew it, they did smash hit in Japan.
However, she is cute. August 8, 2007

Some of the Best of Annette

Annette became a TV Star at age 12 on Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club and went from TV Star to Teen Idol to Movie Star with Grace, modesty and dignity in a career that spanned about Ten years and she still remains in the public consciousness. I suspect this is because she was the "real deal", shy, unassuming and the genuine personification of a "Nice Girl". This set from Vista contains three of her hit singles: "Tall Paul"; "Train of Love" and "Pineapple Princess" and also contains a few tracks from her series of "Beach Party" albums, most notably: "Beach Party", "The Monkey's Uncle" (with the Beach Boys singing backup) "Jamaica Ska" and "Surfer's Holiday". It's great fun and you'll love it. Several of Annette's major hits are missing here includng "O Dio Mio" and First Name Initial". That's why this CD loses one star. I only wish that Vista (Disneyland) would release more of her albums on CD, particularly the Beach Party series. May 27, 2005

Pineapple Princess

If you like 50's and 60's music, especially pop or beach music,you'll like this. I like "Pineapple Princess" a lot, even though it's often spoken of in less than glowing terms. But I remember listening to it when I was a very small child and I just loved it. It's true that I've wondered how the boy she sings about could sing his songs "from banana trees" when the only banana trees I've ever seen don't have branches suitable for climbing. But hey, what do I know about Hawaiian banana trees? I also love "Let's Get Together" and some of the silly, obviously-made-for-the-current-Disney-movie songs like "Monkey's Uncle" and "Merlin Jones." These are songs from a different era. Live a little, go visit the music your parents or grandparents liked! July 29, 2003

More reviews at Amazon.com ...