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?

- The Rev. Gove.23rd Nov 2018
- Why I love th...22nd Nov 2018
- My favourite ...20th Nov 2018
- Clapton.18th Nov 2018
- Elton John Le...17th Nov 2018
- The forgotten...14th Nov 2018
- The reason we...7th Nov 2018
- Lulu turns 70.6th Nov 2018
- Two things I'...5th Nov 2018
- RIP PY.3rd Nov 2018
- The wisdom of...30th Oct 2018
- The original ...29th Oct 2018
- One of the mo...27th Oct 2018
- Hoover and Ra...26th Oct 2018
- Thursday.25th Oct 2018 prev next