stage fright. She lived in constant fear that her voice would give out
or she would sing a bad note and disgrace herself but she was earning so
much money she couldn’t afford to stop doing it. She was urged to sing
in different voices and under at least fifteen different names depending
on the kind of song she was singing or the record label she was singing
for. She had huge numbers of singing aliases therefore and had hit
songs under a wide variety of names on many different labels. Sometimes
she imitated Helen Kane (inspiration for the Betty Boop cartoon
character) and sang in a baby voice. Sometimes she sang sentimental
ballads. Often she became known for jazz age up-tempo tunes which she
sang with a calm voice, occasional jazzy interpolations and a good sense
of how to fit in well with a complex orchestral arrangement.

In
addition, Annette’s performances were enhanced by her great beauty
which was used to sell sheet music by putting her face and form fully on
the
cover. Pictures of her graced sheet music shops like the one owned by
her aunt and uncle and sold her records — it was used to sell sheet music by putting her face and form fully on the
cover. Pictures of her graced sheet music shops like the one owned by
her aunt and uncle and sold her records — it is said that within five
years of her coming on the scene with her first recordings for Pathe,
she had sold 30 million records and started appearing regularly as a
guest on radio programs from 1929. She also starred on a radio show
which featured Annette Hanshaw: The Personality Girl on the Maxwell House Show Boat from 1932 to 1934.