Helen Shapiro

Helen Shapiro, whose trademark bouffant hair became an iconic image of the early 1960s,  was born in Bethnal Green, London, the granddaughter of Polish Jewish immigrants.   Shapiro played a bango as a child and sang with her brother in his school jazz group. She had a deep timbre to her voice, unusual in a girl not yet in her teens. School friends gave her the  nickname "Foghorn".

In 1961, at the age of only fourteen, she had two number one hits in the UK: You Don't Know and Walkin Back to Happiness; and, indeed, her first four single releases all went into the top three of the charts. She was quickly dubbed Britain's answer to Brenda Lee.  'That doesn't bother me at all', she said.  'Brenda is a great singer  - so I take it as a compliment.  However, my aim is to be Britain's Helen Shapiro, and to the best of my knowledge I have not been influenced by Brenda'.  She already wore her auburn hair in a bouffant--"held in place with tons of lacquer," she later said.   Before she was sixteen years old, Helen had been voted Britain's 'Top Female Singer', and when The Beatles had their first national tour it was as her supporting act.

By the time she was in her late teens, however, her career as a pop singer was on the wane. Helen wrote in her 1993 autobiography, Walking Back to Happiness. "I'd been a novelty at fourteen but I suffered from the Shirley Temple syndrome. I'd grown up. Suddenly I was beginning to look a little bit passe in spite of topping the bill."

Undaunted, she re-invented herself as a performer in stage musicals and as  a jazz singer,.  Her wonderful voice has lost none of its power over the years and after producing her first independent jazz album; 'Straighten Up and Fly Right' in 1983, she went on to collaborate with a number of respected British jazz musicians.  More recently a gospel singer releasing four gospel albums and appearing in numerous gospel concerts.  In late 2003 she finished her much-publicized "farewell tour" throughout the U.K. and Europe, performing a mix of pop, jazz and gospel concerts at mid-level venues.

See Helen sing 'Walking Back to Happiness': http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=CtybZggplNY

For details of Helen's forthcoming gospel outreaches and albums visit the Helen Shapiro Friends Club at http://aearwaker.tripod.com/

Manna Music is the ministry umbrella for Helen's gospel outreach work, for more details see http://www.mannamusic.co.uk/