Helen Shapiro
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
- ^ 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.
- ↑ a b Chart sources: DE UK US
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Shapiro, Helen |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English pop singer |
DATE OF BIRTH | September 28, 1946 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | London , England , UK |