Annette Funicello › Similar Artists

Rex Allen - 62% match to Annette Funicello

Rex Elvie Allen, 31 December 1920, Willcox, Arizona, USA, d. 17 December 1999, Tucson, Arizona, USA. Country singer Allen was no imitation cowboy - his family were homesteaders: a mountain lion was killed close to his home, his brother died from a rattlesnake bite, and the family lost everything in the drought of 1934. As Allen had ridden on the farm, he thought he could tra Read more

Lou Christie - 24% match to Annette Funicello

Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco, 19 February 1943, Glen Willard, Pennsylvania, USA. A former student of classical music, Christie moved to New York in 1963 where he sang backing vocals on a variety of sessions. Before beginning his string of hits, Christie recorded unsuccessfully with such groups as the Classics, Lugee And The Lions and the Tammys. Although his high falsetto wa Read more

Fess Parker - 23% match to Annette Funicello

16 August 1925, Fort Worth, Texas, USA. An actor and singer, Parker did some stage work before making his film debut in 1952 in Untamed Frontier, a western starring Joseph Cotton and Shelley Winters. Two years later he appeared as the famous Indian scout-legislator-Alamo defender Davy Crockett, in three episodes of the television series Disneyland. The shows were extremely p Read more

Donna Loren - 22% match to Annette Funicello

Arthur Lyman - 21% match to Annette Funicello

1932, Kauai, Hawaii, d. 24 February 2002, Ewa, Hawaii. Lyman popularized a jazzy style of Hawaiian music during the 50s, and gathered a following as a purveyor of so-called exotic music. As a child, Lyman moved to the large Hawaiian city of Honolulu, where he became interested in the music of Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton. He learned to play along with their records on a Read more

Dee Dee Sharp - 21% match to Annette Funicello

Dione LaRue, 9 September 1945, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. A backing vocalist for the Cameo -Parkway labels, Dee Dee Sharp was the uncredited voice on Chubby Checker’s ‘Slow Twistin’’ single. Her own debut, ‘Mashed Potato Time’, was recorded at the same session and, thanks to the power of Dick Clark’s American Bandstand television show Read more

Martin Denny - 20% match to Annette Funicello

10 April 1911, New York City, New York, USA, d. 2 March 2005, Hawaii Kai, Hawaii, USA A pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor, Denny trained as a classical pianist and toured with various bands before moving to Hawaii in 1954. The story goes that while playing in the Shell Bar of the alfresco Hawaiian Village nightclub in Honolulu, he began to incorporate the sounds of Read more

Connie Francis - 19% match to Annette Funicello

Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero, 12 December 1938, Newark, New Jersey, USA. A popular singer of tearful ballads and jaunty up-tempo numbers, Francis was one of the most successful female artists of the 50s and 60s. She began playing the accordion at the age of four, and was singing and playing professionally when she was 11. After winning an Arthur Godfrey Talent Show, she ch Read more

Anita Bryant - 18% match to Annette Funicello

25 March 1940, Barnsdale, Oklahoma, USA. Bryant has had a unique series of career changes: a beauty queen turned hitmaker, turned religious singer and spokesperson against gay liberation. Her first stage appearance was at the age of six and at nine she won her first talent show. She became known as ‘Oklahoma’s Red Feather Girl’, and local television and radio Read more

Jan & Dean - 18% match to Annette Funicello

US pop duo comprising Jan Berry (William Jan Berry, 3 April 1941, Los Angeles, California, USA, d. 26 March 2004, Los Angeles, California, USA) and Dean Torrence (b. 10 March 1940, Los Angeles, California, USA). Students at Emerson Junior High School, Berry and Torrence began singing together on an informal basis. They formed an embryonic group, the Barons, with Bruce Johnst Read more

Judy Garland - 18% match to Annette Funicello

Frances Ethel Gumm, 10 June 1922, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, USA, d. 22 June 1969, Chelsea, London, England. The Gumms were a theatrical family. Parents Frank and Ethel had appeared in vaudeville as Jack and Virginia Lee, and later, with the addition of their first two daughters, Mary Jane and Virginia, they appeared locally as ‘The Four Gumms’. ‘Baby Frances
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The Orlons - 18% match to Annette Funicello

A mixture of school friends and neighbours, this Philadelphia-based group was formed by Shirley Brickley (9 December 1944, d. 13 October 1977), Steve Caldwell (b. 22 November 1942), Rosetta Hightower (b. 23 June 1944, USA) and Marlena Davis (b. 4 October 1944). Introduced to Cameo Records by the lead singer of the Dovells, Len Barry, the Orlons’ first hits, ‘The Wa Read more

Bobby Rydell - 16% match to Annette Funicello

Robert Ridarelli, 26 April 1942, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Probably the most musically talented of the late 50s Philadelphia school of clean-cut teen-idols, Rydell first performed in public as a drummer at the age of seven. At nine he debuted on Paul Whiteman’s Teen Club amateur television show and was the show’s regular drummer for three years. He attended Read more

Little Peggy March - 16% match to Annette Funicello

Shelley Fabares - 16% match to Annette Funicello

Michelle Fabares, 19 January 1944, Santa Monica, California, USA. Fabares, whose music career was highlighted by the 1962 US number 1 song ‘Johnny Angel’, was the niece of actress Nanette Fabray. Turning to acting herself, Fabares debuted as Trudy in the television series Annie Oakley. She subsequently landed roles in such 50s movies as Never Say Goodbye, Rock, Pre Read more