I cycled home through Clapton today. Down to Millfields Park, along the River Lea towards Tottenham and through Hornsey to Muswell Hill. Clapton was the childhood home of Helen Shapiro. It was where she lived when this topped the charts in 1961. Helen Shapiro was a huge star in that strange time between rock n roll and The Beatles, and when she made this wonderful record, she was just 14. She came from a respectable Jewish family. Apart from her talent, there was nothing precocious about Helen. And yet at 14, she was singing longingly and knowingly about the pain of unrequited love. Nobody thought there was anything untoward about this. Her voice was mature enough to carry the song so her age was neither here nor there. Nowadays, this would be considered “inappropriate”. And I still can’t decide which era is right and which is wrong.
Did no one at the time think this was odd?

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