1. Helen Kate Shapiro was born on 28 September 1946 and is a British pop and jazz singer and actress.
18 Facts About Helen Shapiro
1. 2.
Helen Shapiro first achieved prominence in 1961 when her debut single, "Don't Treat Me Like a Child", reached number three on the UK Singles Chart.
3.
Helen Shapiro was born at Bethnal Green Hospital in the East End district of Bethnal Green, London.
4.
Helen Shapiro is the granddaughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants; her parents, who were piece-workers in the garment industry, attended Lea Bridge Road Synagogue.
5.
Helen Shapiro played banjolele as a child and occasionally sang with her brother Ron in the skiffle group of his youth club.
6.
Helen Shapiro had a deep timbre to her voice, unusual in a girl not yet in her teens; school friends nicknamed her "Foghorn".
7.
At the age of 10, Helen Shapiro was a singer with Susie and the Hula Hoops, a school band that included Marc Bolan as guitarist.
8.
Burman's connections included John Schroeder, a young songwriter man at EMI's Columbia Records, who recorded a demonstration tape of Helen Shapiro singing "Birth of the Blues", and motivated by her singing, signed her to the label.
9.
In February 1961, at 14, Helen Shapiro released her first single, "Don't Treat Me Like a Child".
10.
The single quickly reached the top of the chart with far greater sales than her last in October 1961, by which time Helen Shapiro had turned 15.
11.
Helen Shapiro initially been reluctant to record the song, as she considered it old-fashioned and corny.
12.
On 31 December 1969, Helen Shapiro appeared in the BBC-ZDF co-production, Pop Go the Sixties, singing "Walkin' Back to Happiness".
13.
Helen Shapiro played the part of Sally Bowles in Cabaret and starred in Seesaw to great critical acclaim.
14.
Helen Shapiro's one-woman show, Simply Shapiro, ran from 1999 to the end of 2002.
15.
Helen Shapiro's autobiography, published in 1993, is titled Walking Back to Happiness.
16.
Helen Shapiro appeared in August 2012 as a guest on BBC Radio 4's The Reunion in a programme about "60s Girl Singers".
17.
Helen Shapiro married the theatre producer Duncan Weldon in 1967 and they divorced in 1971.
18.
In 1982, Helen Shapiro met John Judd, an actor with numerous roles in British television and cinema.