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Helen Shapiro’s “Magical” Time With the Beatles

Nothing instills insecurity more in a teenaged singer than seeing a headline stating the end of the teenager’s once blossoming career.  Such was the case of Helen Shapiro when Melody Maker sniped in October 1963: “Is Helen Shapiro a Has-Been at 16?”  At the time, Helen was the headliner on a package tour of Northern England with ten other British acts.  One of her tour-mates, John Lennon, consoled her by saying, “You don’t want to be bothered with that rubbish.”

Alas, Melody Maker’s headline rang true as Helen permanently remained a household name only in British homes while the Beatles’ days of traveling on a bus along with soon-to-fade-into-obscurity acts like the Kestrels, Kenny Lynch, the Red Price Band and Helen herself were about to end.  In a 2003 interview with Dutch Public Television, Helen stated: “We all knew the Beatles were going to be big, but we never knew how big.”

Although her record sales weakened, her friendship with the Beatles’ remained strong.  Helen confessed: “John Lennon was the guy I was closest to out of all of them and we got on great.”  Proof can be seen in the October 3, 1963 clip of their appearance on the British music show Ready, Steady, Go!  Helen lip-synched her hit, “Look Who It Is,” to a bemused John, Ringo and George.

 

Paul was busy judging a bizarre contest consisting of four teenagers lip synching, shaking 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 tale that made the tabloids and inspired McCartney to write “She’s Leaving Home.”

Unfortunately, Helen’s manager, Norrie Paramor, wasn’t impressed with Lennon-McCartney’s songwriting work and passed on her recording the Liverpudlians’ “Misery.”  In a 1995 episode of This Is Your Life, Shapiro revealed, “It was actually turned down on my behalf before I ever heard it, actually. I never got to hear it or give an opinion. It’s a shame, really.”  In Barry Miles’ Many Years from Now book, Paul said of the song: “It was our first stab at a ballad and had a little spoken preface. It was just a job. You could have called us hacks, hacking out a song for someone.”

It wasn’t the first time Norrie’s judgment can be called into question.  The first time happened the first time Norrie heard Helen’s 13-year-old voice on a demo tape singing “Birth of the Blues.” After hearing Helen’s deep and hypnotic warbling, Norrie asked a Columbia Records A&R chap named John Schroeder, “Who’s the boy?”  Norrie and Columbia later fumbled Helen’s career by releasing “Woe is Me” instead of “It’s My Party.”  Instead, another teen and version by Lesley Gore (produced by Quincy Jones) became the worldwide smash hit that eluded Helen.

Helen never had the mass approval that another fabulous British songstress, Dusty Springfield, achieved, but Shapiro possibly inspired Dusty.  Shapiro’s 1962 Helen in Nashville LP, produced by Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee’s crack producer, Owen Bradley, predated Dusty’s decision to record her landmark Dusty in Memphis album by seven years.  While Dusty may have borrowed Helen’s idea to record in Tennessee, each borrowed a songwriter well-known to the singers.  Helen recorded “Here in Your Arms,” a tune written by Dusty’s brother, Tom, while Dusty’s hit, “I Only Want to be With You,” was co-written by Mike Hawker who wrote scores of songs for Shapiro.

But like other British singers before the Beatles, Helen’s efforts for worldwide acceptance failed.  Her highest charting single in the States (#100 in 1961) was her #1 British hit, the stellar “Walking Back to Happiness.”

 

Her co-starring role in the hokey Trad Dad (in America, it was released as Ring A Ding Rhythm) didn’t kick-start Shapiro-mania in the States.  She reminisced to Gary James of ClassicBands.com: “The movie was made by Pete Lester, who later became Richard Lester, and who directed all the Beatles films.  It was a very silly story really. I had sort of an acting, I use that word advisedly, role all the way through.”

 

Unlike dozens of teen sensations who fell on hard times when their pop stylings became passé, Helen pulled herself up by her Beatle boots’ straps. Thanks to her manager, Tony Barrow, who was the Beatles’ publicist, Helen had a solid career on the London stage (acting in Oliver and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) and in cabarets.

But while some of her contemporaries were getting high, Helen found a higher calling when she vowed to spread the good word through gatherings called “Gospel Outreach.”  As she notes on her website mannamusic.co.uk: “I committed my life to Him as my Lord and Savior.  This I joyfully did on August 26th, 1987 at 10:30 pm. Even though there were no thunderbolts or flashes of lightning, I knew that my prayer was answered.”

Today, she is part of Hebron, a group that literally sings their praises of the Lord, live and on CDs.

During her brief time knocking out hits in England, Helen must have heard gossipy secrets that she could spill about British celebrities.  She even revealed one of her biggest secrets about her time with the Fab Four: “They’d call me Helly. And I used to smoke cigarettes at that time, secretly. So, they used to make fun of me when I would dive into the ladies’ restroom for a cigarette. I couldn’t be seen having one in public. So, they used to make fun of me for that.”

-Mark Daponte

Photo: Helen Shapiro, 1963 (Harry Pot via Wikimedia Commons)

 

Mark Daponte is a copy/blog writer for an advertising company and has published/sold four short stories, three full length screenplays, nine short screenplays (including two animation scripts) and punches up screenplays—because they don’t punch back. He has had six short comedic plays performed by various theater companies, including one in Los Angeles, (Sacred Fools) and Sacramento, CA (Sacramento Actors Theater Company). When he isn’t sinking down to a thirteen-year-old’s level to make his teenaged sons laugh, he can be found seeking signs of intelligent life in his hometown of Brooklyn, NY.

1 comment on “Helen Shapiro’s “Magical” Time With the Beatles

  1. Ellen Fagan

    What a fantastic piece of Beatles-adjacent lore! Thanks for this. Sounds like Shapiro has had a fine post-fame life.

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