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Music Monday – Annette Hanshaw
If you don’t already know her, I’m very pleased to acquaint you with one of my favorite singers!
Annette Hanshaw (1901- 1985) needs little more than a piano accompaniment, ukulele strum and cymbal punctuation to offset her dreamy, buttery voice. Her songs are filled with breathy pauses and hums as she pleads “Love me Tonight” or flippantly suggests, “What do I Care?” Through her extensive recordings, manages to effortlessly combines flapper ingenue with sweetheart pop songs. One quick glance through her catalogue and you’ll surely recognize standards like “Ain’t She Sweet?” and “Button Up Your Overcoat.” She’s instantly likeable and her songs will stick with you throughout the day!
I like to listen to Annette Hanshaw while I’m cooking a lengthy breakfast of baking powder biscuits, tofu scramble and strong Brazilian coffee. Her rhythms deliciously accompany any activity that involves wearing an apron, rolling dough, and singing to oneself in the kitchen. In fact, she even has a song called “Cooking Breakfast for the One I Love!” And, a girl after my own heart, she likes dogs, perfume and cooking, but dislikes diets, mathematics and bugs. Isn’t it silly that magazines today aren’t any better when profiling celebrities?
And who’s got plenty of that thing they call “it”?
And who can pet and love like Babe Ruth can hit?
Who?
Who takes the sheikin’ prize?
Who plays like Lindbergh flies?
Who-oo? You-oo, that’s who!
“Who-Oo? You-Oo, That’s Who” is one of my favorite songs because it references slang and celebrities of the age in lines like “Who loves like Lindburg flies?” and sheikin’ prize (what ever that may be!!). Her version of “Button Up Your Overcoat” mentions keeping away from bootleg hooch and Peroxide blondes!
Possibly my favorite part of her songs is that she always finishes the recording with a demure, “That’s all!”
Tiptoe through the Tulips
We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye – Footage of her singing
6 Responses to Music Monday – Annette Hanshaw
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A lady’s man of the era was often referred to in the parlance of the day as a “sheik” (after the character the great movie lover Rudy Valentino played), and it sometimes, as in the song lyric you referenced, gets used as a verb, too.
I’m a big Hanshaw fan, and play her a good deal on my streaming radio station, Cladrite Radio, which features music from 1925-1955. I am glad to note that she’s been bubbling up in the public consciousness a bit more of late.
Thanks for the post.
Thanks for your comment! I know that Helen Kane refers to her beau:
He’s up in his Latin and Greek,
But in his sheikin’, he’s weak!
from “He’s So Unusual” but I didn’t know what a sheikin’ prize would be. I guess a pretty lady? Ha ha!
Oh, she’s lovely. I’d never heard of her before. Thanks for this – I’ve been looking for more music to listen to from this era. =D
-Andi x
Interesting that she, Ruth Etting and Libby Holman often did their own versions of the same tunes. I really like Miss Hanshaw’s attempts at ballads, too. “Moanin’ Low” is a good example.
her version of button up your overcoat was a helen kane imitation
http://www.archive.org/details/AnnetteHanshawsHelenKaneImitations
her helen kane imitations were a joke between her and helen becuse they were friends
One of my favorites too! I can’t get enough of “Tellin’ It to the Daisies”. ^_^