Helen Shapiro’s “Magical” Time With the Beatles

When a teenage singer sees a headline announcing the demise of their once-thriving career, nothing makes them feel more insecure. In October 1963, Melody Maker sniped, “Is Helen Shapiro a Has-Been at 16?” in reference to Helen Shapiro. Helen was the star of a Northern England package tour that included eleven other British performers at the time. She was comforted by John Lennon, one of her tour companions, who said, “You don’t want to be bothered with that rubbish.”Unfortunately, Melody Maker’s headline was accurate since Helen would always be a household name only in British households, and the Beatles’ days of touring on buses with soon-to-be-obscure groups like the Red Price Band, Kenny Lynch, the Kestrels, and Helen herself were coming to an end. “We all knew the Beatles were going to be big, but we never knew how big,” Helen said in a 2003 interview with Dutch Public Television.

Her connection with the Beatles remained solid despite a decline in her record sales. “John Lennon was the guy I was closest to out of all of them, and we got on great,” Helen admitted. The video from their debut on the British music program Ready, Steady, Go on October 3, 1963, serves as evidence. To the bewildered John, Ringo, and George, Helen lip-synced her smash song, “Look Who It Is.”Paul was busy judging a weird contest consisting of four teens lip synching, swaying and shimmying to Brenda Lee’s “Jump the Broomstick.” Paul declared Melanie Coe the winner. Four years later, Melanie ran away from her home; a narrative that made the tabloids and led McCartney to write “She’s Leaving Home.”

Sadly, Helen’s manager, Norrie Paramor, rejected her recording of the Liverpudlians’ “Misery” because he wasn’t impressed with Lennon-McCartney’s songwriting. “It was actually turned down on my behalf before I ever heard it, actually,” Shapiro disclosed in a 1995 episode of This Is Your Life. I never heard it or had a chance to comment. It’s extremely unfortunate. Paul described the song as “our first stab at a ballad and had a little spoken preface” in Barry Miles’ book Many Years from Now. It was only a job. We could have been referred to as hacks as we were stealing a song for someone.