Shapiro was born at Bethnal Green Hospital in the East End district of Bethnal Green, London. Her early childhood was spent in a Clapton council house in the London borough of Hackney, where she attended Northwold Primary School and Clapton Park Comprehensive School until Christmas 1961. She is the granddaughter of Russian Jewish immigrants; her parents, who were piece-workers in the garment industry, attended Lea Bridge Road Synagogue. The family moved from Clapton to the Victoria Park area of Hackney, on the Parkside Estate, when she was nine. "It was, and remains, a beautiful place," she said in a 2006 interview.
Although too poor to own a record player, Shapiro's parents encouraged music in their home (she had to borrow a neighbour's player to hear her first single). Shapiro played banjolele as a child and sang with her brother Ron occasionally in his youth club skiffle 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".
Aged ten, Shapiro was a singer with "Susie and the Hula Hoops," (with her cousin, 60s singer, Susan Singer) a school band which included Marc Bolan (then using his real name of Mark Feld) as guitarist. At 13 she started singing lessons at The Maurice Burman School of Modern Pop Singing, based in London's Baker Street, after the school produced singing star Alma Cogan. "I had always wanted to be a singer. I had no desire to slavishly follow Alma's style, but chose the school merely because of Alma's success", she said in a 1962 interview. Burman's connections eventually led her to a young Columbia Records A&R man named John Schroeder, who recorded a demo of Shapiro singing "Birth of the Blues".
In 1961, aged fourteen, she had a UK No. 3 hit with her first single, "Don't Treat Me Like a Child" and two number one hits in the UK, "You Don't Know" and "Walkin' Back to Happiness". The latter did not top the UK chart until 19 October 1961, by which time Shapiro had reached 15, on 26 September. She had a No. 2 in 1962 with "Tell Me What He Said", achieving her first four single releases in the top three of the UK Singles Chart. Most of her recording sessions were at EMI's studios at Abbey Road in north west London. Her mature voice made her an overnight sensation, as well as the youngest female chart topper in the UK.
Shapiro's final UK Top Ten hit single was with the ballad "Little Miss Lonely", which peaked at No. 8 for two weeks in 1962. Shapiro's recording manager at the time was Norrie Paramor.
Before she was sixteen years old, Shapiro had been voted Britain's "Top Female Singer". The Beatles first national tour of Britain, in the late winter/early spring of 1963, was as one of her supporting acts. During the course of the tour, the Beatles had their first hit single and John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the song "Misery" for her, but Shapiro did not record the composition. In 1995, during a This is Your Life highlighting her life and career, 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." Shapiro lip-synched her then-current single, "Look Who It Is", on the British television programme Ready Steady Go! with three of the Beatles (John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison).
In 1962, Shapiro appeared as herself in the Billy Fury film Play It Cool, and played the lead female role in Richard Lester's movie, It's Trad, Dad!, which co-starred another early 60s hitmaker, Craig Douglas. On 31 December 1969, Shapiro appeared on the BBC/ZDF co-production Pop Go The Sixties, singing "Walkin' Back to Happiness".
By the time she was in her late teens, her career as a pop singer was on the wane. With the new wave of beat music and newer female singers such as Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and Lulu, Shapiro appeared old-fashioned and emblematic of the pre-Beatles, 50s era. As her pop career declined, Shapiro turned to cabaret appearances, touring the workingmen's clubs of the North East of England. Her final cabaret show took place at Peterlee's Senate Club on 6 May 1972, where she announced she was giving up touring as she was "travel-weary" and had had enough of "living out of a suitcase". Later, after a change of mind, she branched out as a performer in stage musicals, and jazz (being her first love musically).
She played the role of Nancy in Lionel Bart's musical, Oliver! in London's West End and appeared in a British television soap opera, Albion Market, where she played one of the main characters until it was taken off air in August 1986.
Between 1984 and 2001, she toured extensively with legendary British jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton and his band, whilst still performing her own jazz and pop concerts. Her one-woman show "Simply Shapiro" ran from 1999 to the end of 2002, when she finally bade farewell to show business.
Her autobiography, published in 1993, was entitled Walking Back to Happiness. She appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's 'The Reunion' in August 2012. In March 2013 she appeared on BBC Radio 3's 'Good Morning Sunday'
Helen Shapiro has been married since 31 August 1988 to John Judd (real name, John Williams), an actor with numerous roles in British television and cinema.
Look Over Your Shoulder
Helen Shapiro Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And your pockets
They ain't got nothing left to show
When times are bad for you
And you need someone else to help you
Look over your shoulder
Where, when people pass you by
And they look at you
Out of the corner of their eye
When you feel very small
Like you're not there at all
Look over your shoulder
I'll be standing behind you
Yea, when life is down on you
And everything you do turns out wrong
If my love is strong
I'll be there right behind you
Where, when people put you down
And your pride is not, it's not quite down to the ground
When your whole world falls through
And you need someone to help you
Look over your shoulder
I'll be standing behind you
Yeah, look over your shoulder
I'll be standing there
In the song Look Over Your Shoulder by Helen Shapiro, the singer offers reassurance to a person who is feeling down and in need of help. The opening lines establish a sense of hopelessness and despair, where the subject has nowhere to go and absolutely no belongings. The singer acknowledges that in these times of desperation, you need someone to help you, and that she'll be standing right there if you look over your shoulder.
The subsequent verse explores the theme of social exclusion, where people pass by the subject and ignore or belittle them. The singer offers comfort and tells him to look over his shoulder, and she'll be standing behind him. The recurring message of the song is that no matter how bad life gets, or how little you have, the singer will always be there to help you, and you are not alone.
The song provides a message about the importance of having someone to rely on when we feel like giving up. By telling the person to look over their shoulder, the singer wants them to know that they are not alone in their struggles, and she will be standing there irrespective of their situation. The lyrics offer a ray of hope, and the singer goes beyond the spoken word to reassure the subject that they can overcome their current problems.
Line by Line Meaning
Where you got nowhere to go
When you have nowhere to turn
And your pockets
They ain't got nothing left to show
And you're broke, you have nothing to offer
When times are bad for you
And you need someone else to help you
When things are tough and you need help from someone
Look over your shoulder
I'll be standing right there
I'll be there for you, watching out for you
Where, when people pass you by
And they look at you
Out of the corner of their eye
When people ignore or judge you
When you feel very small
Like you're not there at all
When you feel invisible and unimportant
Look over your shoulder
I'll be standing behind you
I'll be there to support you, even if you don't see me
Yea, when life is down on you
And everything you do turns out wrong
If my love is strong
I'll be there right behind you
Even when everything is going wrong, I'll be there to support you because of my love for you
Where, when people put you down
And your pride is not, it's not quite down to the ground
When your whole world falls through
And you need someone to help you
When people insult you and your self-worth is damaged, and when your life feels like it's falling apart, and you need help
Look over your shoulder
I'll be standing behind you
Yeah, look over your shoulder
I'll be standing there
I'll be there to help you when you need it, you can count on me
Lyrics Β© RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: BARRY RICHARDS, DONALD THOMAS, JEAN THOMAS FOX
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@SuperBeachbum74
What an incredible voice , sheβs great !
@davidwalsh3439
A powerful performance from one of the great stars of the sixties. She should have made more records of this type. I always enjoyed Helens music.
@goenthusiast6761
@David Walsh: I agree that this was a great performance, and that hers is an outstanding voice. To her credit, she did make more songs like this, and this was part of the reason that she did not become a bigger star. Her timing was off by about ten years (not that she could have started any earlier - the girl recorded her first #1 hit AT AGE 14! She had the misfortune of recording that type of music whenΒ performers like The Beatles, Cliff Richard, and Elvis Presley were at their peak. From 1960 to 1963, Elvis Presley had nine #1 hits on the British charts, for a total of 41 weeks! Then the Beatles showed up. To make matters worse, the music style was beginning to change, and she did not change with it. Lulu, Mary Hopkin, Sandie Shaw, Dusty Springfield, and company started ruling the airwaves.
In my mind, she is one of the Greats! In particular, I like her Queen for Tonight.
GO E
@anamariapeixoto9528
The songs from that era are wonderful! I love to listen.
@halihalihaidiho
Fantastic powerful voice
@OSCARDERAMASSAGE
What a voice, really, and what a song ... It ought to be a hit, really ...
@davidoverholt251
What a voice!!!
@torridscene
Holy Sh*t! What a great rendition. Great arrangement and recording. Powerhouse singing. Kills me.
@jussix48
She's unique...! β€οΈπΆππΏππΏ
@jemb2000
This should've been a hit. Great track. Chuck Jackson's original is great as well.