Editing Annette Funicello (section)

===Singing career===
In several scenes in the ''Annette'' serial, she performed the song that launched her singing career. The studio received so much mail about "How Will I Know My Love" (lyrics by [[Tom Adair]], music by Frances Jeffords and William Walsh),<ref>{{cite book
  | title = Disney Fake Book
  | publisher = Hal Leonard Corporation
  | year = 1996
  | location = New York
  | page = 74
  | isbn = 0-7935-4521-8 }}</ref> that Walt Disney issued it as a single, and gave Funicello (somewhat unwillingly{{Citation needed|date=January 2025|reason=wording is provocative}}) a recording contract.<ref name="interview">{{cite web
  | title = Oct 22nd Happy 65th Birthday Annette
  | work = You Remember That.com
  | url = http://www.yourememberthat.com/media/1780/Oct_22nd_____Happy__65th_Birthday__Annette/
  | format = video interview
  | access-date = December 22, 2007 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071224112948/http://www.yourememberthat.com/media/1780/Oct_22nd_____Happy__65th_Birthday__Annette/| archive-date= December 24, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref>

A proposed live-action feature, ''[[The Rainbow Road to Oz]]'', was to have starred some of the Mouseketeers, including [[Darlene Gillespie]] as Dorothy and Funicello as Ozma. Preview segments from the film aired on September 11, 1957, on ''[[Disneyland (TV series)|Disneyland]]''{{'}}s fourth anniversary show.<ref>{{YouTube|kJjhqBb3qGI|''Disneyland'' segment}} (August 4, 2007). Retrieved on April 20, 2013.</ref> By then, MGM's ''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' had been shown on [[CBS Television]] for the first time. Theories on why the film was abandoned include Disney's failure to develop a satisfactory script and the positive reception of the MGM film's television screening. Disney ultimately replaced this film project with a new adaptation of ''[[Babes in Toyland (1961 film)|Babes in Toyland]]'' (1961), which starred Funicello as Mary Contrary.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}