Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Walkin' Back To Happiness
2. Tell Me What He Said
3. Beyond The Sea (La Mer)
4. It's In His Kiss
5. Please Mr Postman
6. Let's Talk About Love
7. Keep Away From Other Girls
8. Will You Love Me Tomorrow
9. Basin Street Blues
10. Daddy Couldn't Get Me One Of Those
11. He Knows How To Love Me
12. It Might As Well Rain Until September
13. Kiss 'N' Run
14. Queen For Tonight
15. My Guy
16. You Won't Come Home
17. Woe Is Me
18. When I'm With You
19. Look Over Your Shoulder
20. It's So Funny I Could Cry

Disc 2:

1. Don't Treat Me Like A Child
2. Little Miss Lonely
3. Are You Lonesome Tonight
4. It's My Party
5. You Don't Know
6. Walk On By
7. Lipstick On Your Collar
8. I Was Only Kidding
9. Look Who It Is
10. Sometime Yesterday
11. Shop Around
12. Walking In My Dreams
13. A Teenager In Love
14. Move Over Darling
15. I Walked Right In (With My Eyes Wide Open)
16. Tomorrow Is Another Day
17. Cry My Heart Out
18. Ole Father Time
19. Marvellous Lie
20. Fever

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35360 in Music
• Released on: 2005-05-02
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Customer Reviews

Helen Shapiro - the teenage pop star years
Although child and teenage stars in entertainment were nothing new even in 1961 Helen Shapiro scored something of a first in the UK by having three top ten singles, two of them No 1s, before she left school at the age of 15. Possessed even then of a voice with a full and mature range, which could go down surprisingly low, she had a string of six top ten hits, and six more slightly less successful, before the beat groups came along and swept away all before them. All those hits, most of them specially written and arranged for her, are scattered about on this collection. Close your eyes, cast your memory back 44 years and picture the girl in the party frock with the bee-hive hair style on ITV's Sunday Night At The London Palladium singing "Walking Back To Happiness".

Before her chart fame she had sung blues and trad jazz in her brother's band, and her versatility in those and other fields is amply illustrated on the other tracks here. Whether its old standards (Move Over Darling, Fever, Basin Street Blues), Motown numbers (Please Mr Postman, My Guy), girl group songs (a shoopless It's In His Kiss and probably the first recording of It's My Party), or even Elvis (Are You Lonesome Tonight?) Helen did them full justice and stamped her own style and phrasing on them.

The recordings cover her four years with EMI's Columbia label and producer Norrie Paramor, from 1961 to 1965. Surprisingly, only about a quarter of them are in stereo, and not necessarily the latest ones, but they do sound reasonably clean and fresh.

After her chart fame Helen returned to her blues and jazz repertoire, to much critical acclaim, teaming up with Humphrey Lyttleton, and still records and performs successfully in that genre to this day. This 40 track, 100 minute collection provides a great showcase of her all round talent at the time of her pop successes.

Practically a " best of " for her 60's music.
An excellent sampler of much of Helen's best 60's POP stuff. There is a strong representation of the "Yeah Yeah" chorus recordings - Walking Back...; Lets Talk....; Shop Around etc - which, while seriously dated, are important in enabling you to appreciate her development as a singer.
I sometimes wonder what some of that early stuff would sound like if given a more sympathetic arrangement.
e.g.Cry My Heart Out or Look Who It Is could be a real revelation.
That glorious intonation and perfect pitch really come into their own with Ballads such as the superb You Don't Know;Sometime Yesterday; Little Miss Lonely and I Apologise.
The Pieces de Resistance remain I Wish I'd Never Loved You and It's So Funny I Could Cry.
They tore my heart out as a teenager and they still do.
Mind you at the other end of the scale the incredibly provocative rendition of the old Peggy Lee classic Fever was the start of more than a few teenage fantasies and still makes the hairs on the back of my neck tingle.
I've only recently rediscovered Ms Shapiro and am rapidly building a collection of her CD's.
Anyone who wants to "test the water" before doing the same would do well to use this CD as a starting point.
This badly under exposed singer continues to record really good stuff. She is still only in her 50's, still looks great and still has the purest voice around.

The hits and much more besides
Helen eventually became a jazz singer of some repute but she is mostly remembered for her early sixties pop music, which she recorded as a teenager. Her first four UK hits were also her biggest, with two of them (You don't know, Walking back to happiness) going all the way to number one and the other two (Don't treat me like a child, Tell me what he said) making the top three. After that, she had just one more top ten hit (Little Miss Lonely) and six minor hits, ending with a cover of Fever (Peggy Lee). This collection contains all of Helen's UK hits including the minor hits.

Most of the other tracks here are covers of songs made famous by others, although it is worth noting that Helen was the first singer to record It's my party, the song that eventually became Lesley Gore's biggest hit. A cover of a blues oldie (Basin street blues) offers a clue to Helen's later career as a jazz singer.

The remaining songs include covers of Lipstick on your collar (Connie Francis), Will you love me tomorrow (Shirelles), Teenager in love (Dion and the Belmonts), Are you lonesome tonight (Elvis Presley), Beyond the sea (Bobby Darin), It might as well rain until September (Carole King), Move over darling (Doris Day), Please Mr Postman (Marvelettes), Shop around (Miracles), Walk on by (Dionne Warwick), My guy (Mary Wells) and It's in his kiss (Betty Everett - this song was later a hit for Linda Lewis in the seventies and Cher in the eighties).

Of course, many compilations of Helen's music have been released before, often containing her own hits and a selection of other famous songs, but this double-CD also includes several obscure songs such asWhen I'm with you, I was only kidding, You won't come home and the intriguingly titled Daddy couldn't get me one of those, just to name a few.

This is an outstanding collection of Helen's music. If you enjoy early sixties pop music by such singers as Lesley Gore, Brenda Lee and Connie Francis, you ought to give Helen's music a listen.