EDW: Helen Shapiro

Nice frock, eh? Helen Shapiro was a teenage pop star in the early Sixties, best known for Walking Back To Happiness. She had a fine beehive hairdo, an even finer voice, toured with The Beatles and all sorts. She wasn't a Top Forty star for long but enjoyed later success in other genres including, most recently, for her recordings of religious songs in keeping with her conversion to Messianic Judaism in 1987. Shapiro means something to me for two particular reasons. The first is that my big sister owned a copy of the EP, pictured right. What a fabulous teen angst pose! Not that her record company was all that happy about it, apparently (click the pic to make it bigger). The second reason derives from Shapiro's growing up in Clapton, east London, where I now live. A reader of my local blog informs me (thanks, Felix) that she got married in a beautiful synagogue which stood close to my home until its recent demolition for reasons which, to me, remain mysterious. Me and Helen Shapiro: more things in common than you might think!

Comments

[Quink]

Superb pics, both of them. I didn't really know anything about her.

[Noosa Lee]

Excellent choice Dave.