Annette Funicello [1942-2013]

Artist: Annette Funicello

LP: Hawaiiannette - Annette Sings Songs of Hawaii

Song: "Pineapple Princess"

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Song: "Hawaiiannette"

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I didn't hear the sad news last month that Annette Funicello had died until a week or so after it had happened. I still haven't seen any of her famous beach movies with Frankie Avalon, but they're certainly on my movie bucket list. Annette's cheerful 1960 Hawaii-themed LP on Disney's Buena Vista label is one of my favorite records to listen to in the springtime. A "Hawaiiannette" must be a sort of cute little half-Hawaii that you might find in an exotic restaurant in Utica, NY or somewhere, just like how a "kitchenette" is a little half-kitchen in the room of a nice motel. You can read all about the life and career of one of the most famous Mouseketeers ever on Wikipedia here and go here to find Annette's obituary in the New York Times.

Annette Funicello

[ October 22, 1942 — April 8, 2013 ]

We will miss you, Annette.

Lene Lovich

Artist: Lene Lovich

LP: 7" single

Song: "Say When"

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It's been awhile since I've posted anything here—busy with school stuff, work, and have been spending much of my free time weeding through my LPs in order to get rid of the ones that just don't cut the mustard anymore. Meanwhile I've missed posting about the passing of a few musical celebrities (a country legend with bad hair and a former Mouseketeer, at least) and I've found some neat stuff in my collection that I'll hopefully be posting soon. This 1979 single is one of three by Lene Lovich that I picked up last weekend at Georgetown Records after enjoying a delicious breakfast at the Square Knot Diner around the corner. When I expressed my excitement about the singles to several friends later that day, I discovered they had never ever heard of Lene Lovich. If there's one thing that September 11th, 2001 and Lene Lovich have in common, it is this: WE MUST NEVER FORGET. Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1949, Lene Lovich started out life with the wonderful and amazing name of Lili-Marlene Premilovich. When she was 13 years old, her Serbian father had health problems, so her English mother took the kids and went back to Britain. Lili-Marlene spent the next decade bouncing around Europe, doing things like going to art school, appearing as an "Oriental" dancer in a cabaret, visiting with Salvador Dali, recording screams for motion picture sountracks, and writing hit songs for Euro-disco superstar Cerrone. As Lene Lovich, she released a trio of LPs on Stiff Records in the late '70s and early '80s and the rest, as they say, is on Wikipedia. 

[ Lene Lovich ]