Helen Shapiro facts: Songs, career, marriages, Messianic Judaism, age and retirement

Even before The Beatles and The Rolling Stones upended everything, the charts of the early 1960s still featured a great deal of pop singles from up-and-coming artists who were just beginning to make their mark.

Within this group was Helen Shapiro, who had not one but two chart-topping singles in the United Kingdom a year prior to the publication of ‘Love Me Do’.She was so successful that the Fab Four even accompanied her on tour at the beginning of 1963, with the Beatles being just halfway down the bill as the then 16-year-old Shapiro headlined 14 shows throughout the course of the tour.

Before the pop revolution shook things up and put an end to her chart-troubling days, Helen had a string of popular singles at the beginning of the decade. However, this was shortly followed by the pop revolution.

It appeared as though she may disappear entirely from public view; yet, she was reincarnated as a prominent figure in the world of musical theater and jazz.

She continues to make music today, encouraged by her Messianic Judaism, despite the fact that she has retired from the entertainment industry. A glance at her incredible life narrative is presented here.The granddaughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Helen Kate Shapiro was born on September 28, 1946 in Bethnal Green, London. Her grandparents were immigrants from Russia.

She was born in a council apartment in Clapton, and when she was nine years old, her family relocated to Victoria Park, which is located in Hackney. Clapton Park Comprehensive School was the next school that Helen attended after Northwold Primary School.

She sung in her brother Ron’s skiffle group when she was young and played the banjolele, which is a combination of the banjo and the ukulele. She was unable to afford a record player at the time.
Helen, who was ten years old at the time, was a member of a band that was reportedly called Susie & the Hula Hoops. Her cousin Susan Singer and guitarist Mark Feld, who would later become Marc Bolan, yes, THE Marc Bolan, were also members of the band. Foghorn was the nickname given to Helen because of her voice, which was extraordinarily powerful and deep.

She entered the Maurice Burman School of Modern Pop Singing at the age of thirteen, following in the footsteps of Alma Cogan, who had previously attended the school.

In addition to enhancing her technique, she was introduced to John Schroeder, an A&R representative for Columbia Records, through the institution.

Helen was signed to the company after he recorded a demo of her singing “Birth of the Blues” and played it for the label.Until she showed up at his offices to perform “St. Louis Blues” in person, it appears that producer Norrie Paramour was unable to accept the fact that someone so young could have a voice that was so mature.

Helen’s first single, titled “Don’t Treat Me Like a Child,” was published in February 1961, when she was only 14 years old. The song was recorded at Abbey Road with a nine-piece band performance.

For a period of three months, she made an appearance on the ITV show Thank Your Lucky Stars, which helped catapult the track to the third spot on the singles charts in the United Kingdom.

The meteoric rise to fame of Helen Shapiro occurred almost immediately and well before her 15th birthday.These performances took place in the interval between the releases of “Please Please Me” and “From Me to You,” and by the middle of that year, it had become abundantly evident that The Beatles and their successors were the ones who would go on to dominate the decade of the 1960s.

At approximately the same time, Shapiro traveled to the United States and recorded Helen in Nashville. This recording was the very first time that ‘It’s My Party’ was ever recorded.

Unfortunately for Helen, her rendition of the song was a forgotten album cut that was not released as a single until October 1963, which was six months after Lesley Gore made the same song a huge hit.