Annette Hanshaw
Encyclopedia
Catherine Annette Hanshaw was born at her parents' residence in New York City on October 18, 1901. [Ed. While Annette sometimes gave her birth date as 1910, nephew Frank W. Hanshaw III confirms 1901 as the date on Annette's birth certificate.]
with the spirit of a flapper
. Hanshaw was known as "The Personality Girl," and her trademark was saying "That's all" in a cheery voice at the end of many of her records.
Between September 1926 and February 1934, she recorded prolifically. From 1926–28 she recorded for Pathe
(her sides were released on both the Pathe and Perfect
labels). Starting in June 1928, she recorded for Columbia
; most of these were issued on their dime store labels Harmony
, Diva
, Clarion and Velvet Tone
. A handful were also released on their regular price Columbia
and OKeh
. Although most were released under her own name, she was renamed Gay Ellis (for sentimental numbers) and Dot Dare or Patsy Young (for her Helen Kane
impersonations). She recorded under a number of other pseudonyms which included Ethel Bingham, Marion Lee, Janet Shaw, and Lelia Sandford. Starting in August 1932, she began recording for the ARC with her recordings issued on their Melotone
, Perfect
, Conqueror
, Oriole
and Romeo
. Her final session, February 3, 1934 was placed on ARC's Vocalion
label.
Hanshaw made her one and only appearance on film in the 1933 Paramount short Captain Henry's Radio Show, "a picturization" of the popular Thursday evening radio program Maxwell House Show Boat
, in which she starred from 1932 to 1934.
Having grown tired of show business, in the late 1930s Hanshaw retired and settled into married life with her husband, Pathé Records
executive Herman "Wally" Rose. Later in life, in a would-be comeback, she recorded two demo
records, but they were never released. She died of cancer in 1985 at New York Hospital after a long illness; she was living in Manhattan at that time.
Collections of Hanshaw's recording were released on Audio CD
in 1999 by Sensation Records. Another revival of interest occurred in 2008 with the indie animated feature Sita Sings the Blues
, which retold the Indian epic poem
the Ramayana
from Sita
's perspective by setting scenes from it to performances by Hanshaw. More recently, her 1929 song "Daddy Won't You Please Come Home" was featured in the video game Bioshock 2
in 2010.
2. Ain't He Sweet
3. It All Depends on You
4. Wistful and Blue
5. Get out and Get Under the Moon
6. Carolina Moon
7. You Wouldn't Fool Me, Would You?
8. That's You, Baby
9. Big City Blues
10. Ua Like No a Like (Sweet Constancy)
11. Pagan Love Song
12. I Have to Have You
13. Telling It to the Daisies
14. Little White Lies
15. I Want a Good Man
16. I Hate Myself
17. Fit as a Fiddle
18. Say It Isn't So
19. Moon Song
20. Twenty Million People
21. Let's Fall in Love
22. I Cover the Waterfront
23. Love Me Tonight
24. We Just Couldn't Say 'Goodbye'
25. I wanna be loved by you
26. If i had a girl like you
27. Im gonna meet my sweetie now
28. It all depends on you
29. Just like a butterfly
30. Little white lies
31. Lovable and sweet
32. What do I care what somebody said?
33. Whistful and blue
34. Would you like to take a walk
35. Yes indeedy he do
36. Youre the cream in my coffee
37. Aint she sweet?
38. Am I blue?
39. Aw gee dont be that way now
40. Body and soul
41. Button up your overcoat
42. Cooking breakfast for the one i love
43. Ever since time began
44. Forgetting you
45. From now on
46. Here or there
47. Here we are
48. Hes the last word
49. I get the blues when it rains
50. I gotta get myself somebody to love
51. I have to have you
52. Mean to me
53. Mine all mine
54. Miss annabelle lee
55. Moanin low
56. My blackbirds are bluebirds now
57. My idea of heaven
58. My inspiration is you
59. Nobody cares if im blue
60. Nuthin'
61. Precious little thing called love
62. Rosy cheeks
63. So blue
64. Telling it to the daisies
65. Thats why I love you
66. The song is ended
67. The way i feel today
68. There must me somebody else
69. Thinking of you
70. Tip toe through the tulips
71. Walking my baby back home
and beyond many more...
Related Tags:
Biography
Her singing style was relaxed and suited to the new jazz-influenced pop music of the late 1920s. Although she had a low opinion of her own singing, she continued to have fans because she combined the voice of an ingenueIngenue (stock character)
See also Disingenuous, which is not quite the antonym that it may seem!The ingénue is a stock character in literature, film, and a role type in the theatre; generally a girl or a young woman who is endearingly innocent and wholesome. Ingenue may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in...
with the spirit of a flapper
Flapper
Flapper in the 1920s was a term applied to a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior...
. Hanshaw was known as "The Personality Girl," and her trademark was saying "That's all" in a cheery voice at the end of many of her records.
Between September 1926 and February 1934, she recorded prolifically. From 1926–28 she recorded for Pathe
Pathé Records
Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...
(her sides were released on both the Pathe and Perfect
Perfect Records
Perfect Records was a United States based record label of the 1920s and 1930s. It was a subsidiary of Pathé Records, producing standard lateral cut 78 rpm disc records for the US market....
labels). Starting in June 1928, she recorded for Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
; most of these were issued on their dime store labels Harmony
Harmony Records
Harmony Records was a label owned by Columbia Records. It was originally used as a label for low-price 78 rpm records in the 1920s and 1930s; subsequently it was revived as a label for budget albums of reissued tracks during the 1950s with nine or ten songs per album...
, Diva
Diva Records
Diva Records was a United States based record label from 1925 to 1931. The label was a subsidiary of Columbia Records marketed by the W.T. Grant department store chain. Diva Records were acoustic through early 1929...
, Clarion and Velvet Tone
Velvet Tone Records
Velvet Tone Records was a United States based record label, active from 1925 through 1932. It was produced by Columbia Records and contained material identical to that of Columbia's two other low price labels, Harmony Records and Diva Records....
. A handful were also released on their regular price Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
and OKeh
Okeh Records
Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...
. Although most were released under her own name, she was renamed Gay Ellis (for sentimental numbers) and Dot Dare or Patsy Young (for her Helen Kane
Helen Kane
Helen Kane was an American popular singer; her signature song was "I Wanna Be Loved By You". Kane's voice and appearance were a likely source for Fleischer Studios animator Grim Natwick when creating Betty Boop, although It-girl Clara Bow is another possible influence.-Early life:Born as Helen...
impersonations). She recorded under a number of other pseudonyms which included Ethel Bingham, Marion Lee, Janet Shaw, and Lelia Sandford. Starting in August 1932, she began recording for the ARC with her recordings issued on their Melotone
Melotone Records
Melotone Records has been the name of two unrelated record companies.* Melotone Records , Australia* Melotone Records , United States of America...
, Perfect
Perfect Records
Perfect Records was a United States based record label of the 1920s and 1930s. It was a subsidiary of Pathé Records, producing standard lateral cut 78 rpm disc records for the US market....
, Conqueror
Conqueror Records
Conqueror Records was a United States-based record label, active from about 1926 through 1942. The label was sold exclusively through Sears, Roebuck and Company.The record sleeves state that the proper playing speed for Conqueror Records is 80 rpm....
, Oriole
Oriole Records
Oriole Records may refer to:* Oriole Records * Oriole Records...
and Romeo
Romeo Records
Romeo Records was a record label based in the United States of America in the 1920s and 1930s. It was a subsidiary of Cameo Records, manufactured to be sold exclusively at the S. H. Kress & Co. department store chain...
. Her final session, February 3, 1934 was placed on ARC's Vocalion
Vocalion Records
Vocalion Records is a record label active for many years in the United States and in the United Kingdom.-History:Vocalion was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Piano Company of New York City, which introduced a retail line of phonographs at the same time. The name was derived from one of their...
label.
Hanshaw made her one and only appearance on film in the 1933 Paramount short Captain Henry's Radio Show, "a picturization" of the popular Thursday evening radio program Maxwell House Show Boat
Maxwell House Show Boat
Maxwell House Show Boat was the top radio show in the United States from 1933 to 1935. The program was sponsored by Maxwell House coffee, and it aired on NBC Radio Thursday nights, 9 pm...
, in which she starred from 1932 to 1934.
Having grown tired of show business, in the late 1930s Hanshaw retired and settled into married life with her husband, Pathé Records
Pathé Records
Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...
executive Herman "Wally" Rose. Later in life, in a would-be comeback, she recorded two demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
records, but they were never released. She died of cancer in 1985 at New York Hospital after a long illness; she was living in Manhattan at that time.
Collections of Hanshaw's recording were released on Audio CD
Red Book (audio CD standard)
Red Book is the standard for audio CDs . It is named after one of the Rainbow Books, a series of books that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CD-ROM formats.The first edition of the Red Book was released in 1980 by Philips and Sony; it was adopted by the Digital Audio Disc...
in 1999 by Sensation Records. Another revival of interest occurred in 2008 with the indie animated feature Sita Sings the Blues
Sita Sings the Blues
Sita Sings the Blues is a 2008 animated feature film written, directed, produced and animated entirely by American artist Nina Paley , primarily using 2D computer graphics and Flash Animation.It intersperses events from the Ramayana, illustrated conversation between Indian shadow puppets,...
, which retold the Indian epic poem
Indian epic poetry
Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called Kavya . The Ramayana and Mahabharata, originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into many other Indian languages, are some of the oldest surviving epic poems on earth and form part of...
the Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
from Sita
SITA
SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the air transport industry...
's perspective by setting scenes from it to performances by Hanshaw. More recently, her 1929 song "Daddy Won't You Please Come Home" was featured in the video game Bioshock 2
BioShock 2
BioShock 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Marin for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The sequel to the 2007 video game BioShock, it was released worldwide on February 9, 2010....
in 2010.
Birthdate
For many years it was believed that Annette had been born in 1910 and began her recording career shortly before her 16th birthday. However, it has recently come to light that she was in fact born nine years earlier, making her 25 at the time of her first commercial recording in September 1926. Her nephew, Frank W. Hanshaw III, has confirmed 1901 as the date on her birth certificate.Songs
1. Black Bottom2. Ain't He Sweet
3. It All Depends on You
4. Wistful and Blue
5. Get out and Get Under the Moon
6. Carolina Moon
7. You Wouldn't Fool Me, Would You?
8. That's You, Baby
9. Big City Blues
10. Ua Like No a Like (Sweet Constancy)
11. Pagan Love Song
12. I Have to Have You
13. Telling It to the Daisies
14. Little White Lies
15. I Want a Good Man
16. I Hate Myself
17. Fit as a Fiddle
18. Say It Isn't So
19. Moon Song
20. Twenty Million People
21. Let's Fall in Love
22. I Cover the Waterfront
23. Love Me Tonight
24. We Just Couldn't Say 'Goodbye'
25. I wanna be loved by you
26. If i had a girl like you
27. Im gonna meet my sweetie now
28. It all depends on you
29. Just like a butterfly
30. Little white lies
31. Lovable and sweet
32. What do I care what somebody said?
33. Whistful and blue
34. Would you like to take a walk
35. Yes indeedy he do
36. Youre the cream in my coffee
37. Aint she sweet?
38. Am I blue?
39. Aw gee dont be that way now
40. Body and soul
41. Button up your overcoat
42. Cooking breakfast for the one i love
43. Ever since time began
44. Forgetting you
45. From now on
46. Here or there
47. Here we are
48. Hes the last word
49. I get the blues when it rains
50. I gotta get myself somebody to love
51. I have to have you
52. Mean to me
53. Mine all mine
54. Miss annabelle lee
55. Moanin low
56. My blackbirds are bluebirds now
57. My idea of heaven
58. My inspiration is you
59. Nobody cares if im blue
60. Nuthin'
61. Precious little thing called love
62. Rosy cheeks
63. So blue
64. Telling it to the daisies
65. Thats why I love you
66. The song is ended
67. The way i feel today
68. There must me somebody else
69. Thinking of you
70. Tip toe through the tulips
71. Walking my baby back home
and beyond many more...
Related Tags:
External links
- Annette Hanshaw Biography at jazzage1920s.com
- Annette Hanshaw at Find a Grave
- Annette Hanshaw at the Internet Archive
- Multiple audio streams of Hanshaw's songs (needs RealplayerRealPlayerRealPlayer is a cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats.-History:...
) - Annette Hanshaw This site has a video of a performance and references to having talked to family members.
- VH1 This Web site lists her birth year as 1910 and has her starting her career at 15 and retiring at 24. The liner notes from the CD "Lovable & Sweet: 25 Vintage Hits" on the Asv Living Era label also contain this apparently incorrect information.
- http://www.rawbw.com/~hinshaw/cgi-bin/id?15964 Annette's Genealogy