Annette - Story of My Teens

$

37

Title: Annette - The Story of my Teens . . . and the Sixteen Songs that Tell It!

Buena Vista  - BV-3312

Condition: Still Sealed -  loose baggy

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“This Album Contains an Eight-Page Book with Full-Color Pictures of Annette”

The Story of My Teens . . .and the sixteen songs that tell it!
Released in 1962   The Disney organization sometimes used Annette's album releases to celebrate milestones in her life.  This one, her first hits collection, was issued in recognition of her 20th birthday.  In order to alert fans that she wasn't a little girl anymore (a fact most of her male admirers had already determined), Buena Vista Records pulled out all the stops.  The Story of My Teens . . . and The Sixteen Songs That Tell It! came with a lavish gatefold sleeve housing eight pages of color photos and text.  Annette penned the liner notes herself, effusively expressing gratitude to songwriters Bob and Dick Sherman, Tutti Camarata, her fans, and of course, her beloved Uncle Walt.  It was an instant collector's item. 
The selections trace her progression from choral singer (with The Mickey Mouse Club on "Mouseketeer Closing Theme") to showtune interpreter ("I Can't Do the Sum", from her most recent Disney movie, Babes In Toyland).  In-between comes a sampling of sugar-frosted rockers and wistful heartbreak ballads old and new, most of which have a Sherman Brothers credit attached.  "¿Amo, Qué Pasó?," a haunting number with South-of-the-Border ambiance, is Funicello balladry at its best - she delivers her most mournful performance since "Lonely Guitar."  The choicest uptempo tune is "Strummin' Song," a gum-crackin' ditty that's tailor-made for campfire singalongs.  Naturally, her hit singles are revisited: "Taul Paul," with its jittery rhythms and irresistible ping-pong percussion; "O Dio Mio," practically a Barbara Cartland romance novel set to music; "Pineapple Princess," that Hawaiian Punch-flavored tale about a boy who comes floatin' down the bay on a crocodile right into Annette's heart; the aforementioned "Lonely Guitar"; and the fabulous "First Name Initial", a near-hysterical declaration of teenage devotion whose furious tambourine-shaking and frantic horn-honking make it one of the rowdiest bubblegum hits ever. Tracks from Italiannette and Annette Sings Anka round out a package that'd be perfect if not for "The Truth About Youth," a topical Sherman brothers song written especially for this album.  Heavy-handed social statements from Annette?  When you're a Pineapple Princess, that kind of behavior is verboten! If Miss Ann's future recordings were gonna sound like this, the fun was definitely over.  But, thankfully, they didn't . . . and it wasn't!