Helen Shapiro

Helen Shapiro, 1963

Helen Shapiro (born September 28, 1946 in London ) is a British singer and actress .

Life

Record star in the UK

Shapiro was born in Bethnal Green , London , and grew up in the East End of London . Already during her school days she performed with a school band and later sang with her brother in jazz clubs. After completing general schooling, she attended a London music school. There she stood out with her distinctive voice and her headmaster drew the attention of producer Bruce Welch , who also worked with Cliff Richard , to the young singer. Welch initially had concerns about the unsuitable dark voice for a 14-year-old, but was then persuaded to make a record. This was released by the Columbia record label in March 1961 with the titles Don't Treat Me Like A Child / When I'm With You (Columbia No. 4589). Don't Treat Me Like A Child had already reached the top 30 of the New Musical Express on April 13, 1961 and finally made it to number 3. In the same year, Shapiro had You Don't Know and Walkin 'Back To Happiness two number one hits. After two more top ten placements in 1962 (Tell Me What He Said , 2nd and Little Miss Lonely , 8th) Shapiro had already reached the peak of her recording career. On 2 February 1963 Shapiro resigned in Gaumont of Bradford on. The opening act for the 16-year-old singer, whose tour director Johnny Clapson was, were the then up-and-coming Beatles . By 1964 she was able to place four of her six published records in the Top 40, the titles produced by Columbia until 1967, as well as the records later produced by the Pye and Arista labels , were unsuccessful.

Foreign engagements

After Don't Treat Me Like A Child had sold successfully in Great Britain, attempts were made to establish Shapiro on the American market as well. Although all of their hit titles were published by Capitol in the US, Walkin 'Back to Happiness (Capitol # 4662) only made it to 100th place on Billboard . The US label Epic also had no success with its two Shapiro records. In Germany, the Columbia branch brought Shapiros hits onto the market, of which only Walkin 'Back To Happiness was ranked 30th in the top 40. Producer Heinz Gietz then tried to sell Helen Shapiro with German-language titles. But neither the German versions of the successful English titles nor the later original German recordings received much attention. Only the two cover versions Ask me not why (Tell Me What He Said) and Come, be again good (I Apologise) reached 31st place at Musikmarkt in 1962. In addition to her German-language titles, Shapiro also recorded two singles with songs in French. With all these activities and the worldwide distribution of her records, she had sold over a million records at the age of 19. In Great Britain it was awarded three “Silver Discs” for every 250,000 records sold.

After the record successes

After her no more record success from 1964, Shapiro turned to stage work. She was active in acting as well as in cabaret and musicals and she also worked in several cinema and television productions. From the 1980s, Shapiro made a name for herself as a jazz singer. Her albums Echos Of The Duke and Humph 'n' Helen became notable hits. When her first gospel album, The Pearl, also reached the audience in 1990 , Shapiro opened up a new, successful field of activity. In 1999 she caused a stir with her stage show Simply Shapiro . To mark the 50th anniversary of her career, the British record company EMI released the 90 -track CD collection The Ultimate Helen Shapiro in 2011 .

At the end of 2012, Shapiro's classic Walkin 'Back To Happiness was selected for a Coca-Cola commercial in Germany .

Discography

UK Columbia
title	Catalog no.	Prod.Date
Don't Treat Me Like A Child / When I'm With You	4589	3/1961
You Don't Know / Marvelous Lie	4670	7/1961
Walkin 'Back To Happiness / Kiss' N' Run	4715	9/1961
Tell Me What He Said / I Apologize	4782	2/1962
Let's Talk About Love / Sometime Yesterday	4824	5/1962
Little Miss Lonely / I Don't Care	4869	7/1962
Keep Away From Other Girls / Cry My Heart Out	4908	11/1962
Queen For Tonight / Daddy Couldn't Get Me One Of Those	4966	2/1963
Woe Is Me / I Walked Right In	7026	4/1963
Not Responsible / No Trespassing	7072	7/1963
Look Who It Is / Walking In My Dreams	7130	11/1963
Fever / Ole Father Time	7190	2/1964
Look Over Your Shoulder / You Won't Come Home	7266	4/1964
Shop Around / He Knows How To Love Me	7340	8/1964
I Wish I'd Never Loved You / I Was Only Kidding	7395	12/1964
Tomorow Is Another Day / It's So Funny I Could Cry	7517	2/1965
Here In Your Arms / Only Once	7587	5/1965
Something Wonderful / Just A Line	7690	10/1965
Forget About The Bad Things / Wait A Little Longer	7810	1966
In My Calendar / Empty House	8073	1966
Make Me Belong To You / The Way Of The World	8148	1967
She Needs Company / Stop And You Will Become Aware	8256	1967
Pye
You'll Get Me Loving You / Silly Boy (I Love You)	17600	1968
Today Has Been Canceled / Face The Music	17714	1969
You've Guessed / Take Me For A While	17785	1969
Take Down A Note / Couldn't You Say	17893	1970
Waiting On The Shores / A Glass Of Wine	17975	1970
Arista
Can't Break The Habit / For All The Wrong Reasons	131	1977
Germany Columbia
Don't ask me why / Come on be good again	22038	3/1962
Yesterday afternoon / I already know the tone	22120	3/1962
I can never sleep / believe me Jonny	22588	1/1964
Always the boys / Why me	22845	10/1964
Say it's beautiful / Red roses	22997	6/1965
I find my bridegroom alone / A way to your heart	23204	5/1966
Vogue
That's not the fine English way / Take Down A Note	612094	1970
United States Capitol
Don't Treat Me Like a Child	4561	4/1961
You Don't Know / Marvelous Lie	4627	1961
Walkin 'Back To Happiness / Kiss N' Run	4662	1962
Tell Me What He Said / I Apologize	4735	4/1962
Epic
Keep Away from Other Girls / Little Miss Lonely	9549	10/1962
Woe Is Me / No Trespassing	9599	5/1963
France Columbia
Parlons d'amour / J'ai tant de remords	SCRF 556	1962
Tout ce qu'il voudra / J'ai tant de remords	SCRF 5557	3/1962

Chart placements

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1962	Tops With Me	-	UK2 (25 weeks) UK	-

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1961	Don't Treat Me Like A Child	-	UK3 (20 weeks) UK	-
	You don't know	-	UK1 (23 weeks) UK	-
	Walkin 'Back To Happiness	DE30 (12 weeks) DE	UK1 (19 weeks) UK	US100 (1 week) US
1962	Don't Treat Me Like A Child	DE43 (4 weeks) DE	UK2 (15 weeks) UK	-
	Let's talk about love	-	UK23 (7 weeks) UK	-
	Don't ask me why	DE31 (12 weeks) DE	-	-
	Little Miss Lonely	-	UK8 (11 weeks) UK	-
	Keep Away From Other Girls	-	UK40 (6 weeks) UK	-
1963	Queen for Tonight	-	UK33 (5 weeks) UK	-
	Woe Is Me	-	UK35 (6 weeks) UK	-
	Look Who It Is	-	UK47 (3 weeks) UK	-
1964	Fever	-	UK38 (4 weeks) UK	-

Filmography

• 1962: Twen hit parade
• 1986: Albion Market (TV series, four episodes)

literature

• Frank Laufenberg: Rock & Pop Lexicon . Econ Taschenbuch Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-612-26207-6 .
• Richard Weize: Helen Shapiro - Always the Boys . Bear Family Records 1990, ISBN 3-897-95093-6 .

Web links

• The Helen Shapiro Friends Club
• British discography at www.45-rpm.org.uk
• US discography at www.musicvf.com
• Helen Shapiro in theInternet Movie Database(English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Brian Roylance, Nicky Page, Derek Taylor : The Beatles Anthology. (Chronicle Books, San Francisco 2000). German translation: Ullstein, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-550-07132-9 , p. 89.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE UK US