ക HELEN SHAPIRO, You Don't Know|Walkin Back To Happiness|Not Responsible|Don't Treat Me Like..|Look Who It Is|

Helen Shapiro (born 28 September 1946, Bethnal Green, London) is an English singer and actress. She is best known for her 1960s UK chart-toppers, "You Don't Know" and "Walkin' Back to Happiness". She is the granddaughter of Russian Jewish immigrants. Her parents were too poor to own a record player but they encouraged music in their home (Helen had to borrow a neighbour's player to hear her first single). Shapiro played banjo as a child and sang with her brother Ron occasionally in his youth club jazz group. She had a deep timbre to her voice, unusual in a girl not yet in her teens: school friends gave her the nickname "Foghorn".

In 1961, at the age of fourteen, she had two number one hits in the UK: "You Don't Know" and "Walkin' Back to Happiness"; and, indeed, her first four single releases all went into the top three of the UK Singles Chart. Her mature voice made her an overnight sensation, as well as the youngest female chart topper in the UK. At a mere 14 years and 316 days old when "You Don't Know" hit the top, she was nevertheless a year older than Frankie Lymon had been when "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" hit the UK number one slot in 1956.

Before she was sixteen years old, Shapiro had been voted Britain's 'Top Female Singer', and when The Beatles had their first national tour (The Helen Shapiro Tour) in 1963, it was as her supporting act. The Beatles even wrote the song "Misery" for her but, inexplicably, EMI decided not to record her singing it.

Shapiro retired from showbusiness at the end of 2002 to concentrate on her Gospel Outreach evenings. She is married to John Judd, an actor with numerous roles in British television and cinema. [wikipedia]

ക HARRY NILSSON, |Jump Into The Fire|Everybody's Talking|Coconut|Me & My Arrow|Without You|Spaceman|

Harry Edward Nilsson III (born June 15, 1941–January 15, 1994) in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York. He was a Swedish American songwriter, singer, pianist, and guitarist who achieved the height of his fame during the 1960s and 1970s. For most of his recordings, he did not use his first name, and was credited only as Nilsson. His paternal grandparents were Swedish circus performers, especially known for their "aerial ballet" (which is the title of one of Nilsson's albums). His father, Harry Edward Nilsson, Jr., abandoned the family three years later.

Despite some significant critical and commercial successes, including two Grammy Awards and two Top 10 singles, Nilsson's tendency to make broad stylistic jumps from one record to the next – coupled with his generally iconoclastic decision-making – kept him from fully capitalizing on his career. Among Nilsson's best-known recordings are "Without You", "Jump into the Fire", "Everybody's Talkin'" (theme from the movie Midnight Cowboy) and "Coconut".

An autobiographical reference to this is found in the opening to Nilsson's song "1941": Pandemonium Shadow Show was followed in 1968 by Aerial Ballet, an album that included Nilsson's rendition of Fred Neil's song "Everybody's Talkin'". A minor US hit at the time of release (and a top 40 hit in Canada), the song would become extremely popular a year later when it was featured in the film Midnight Cowboy, and it would earn Nilsson his first Grammy Award. The song would also become Nilsson's first US top 10 hit, reaching #6, and his first Canadian #1.

Nilsson's next project was an animated film, The Point!, created with animation director Fred Wolf, and broadcast on ABC television on February 2, 1971, as an "ABC Movie of the Week." Nilsson's album of songs from The Point! Was well received, and it spawned a hit single, "Me and My Arrow."

Later that year, Nilsson went to England with producer Richard Perry to record what became the most successful album of his career. Nilsson Schmilsson yielded three very stylistically different hit singles. The first was a cover of Badfinger's song "Without You" (by Pete Ham and Tom Evans), featuring a highly emotional arrangement and soaring vocals to match, a performance that was rewarded with Nilsson's second Grammy Award. [wikipedia]

ക GRAND FUNK RAILROAD, We're An American Band|Closer To Home|Loco-motion|Heartbreaker|

Grand Funk Railroad (also known as Grand Funk) is an American rock band. The Grand Funk Railroad lineup was highly popular during the 1970s. Selling over 25 million records, near constant touring, selling out arenas worldwide and being awarded four RIAA gold albums in 1970, the most for any American Group that year. The current Grand Funk Railroad lineup uses the nickname "The American Band", from their hit song "We're an American Band". A popular take on the band during their heyday was that the critics hated them, but audiences loved them. The band's name is a pun on "Grand Trunk Railroad" a railroad that went through the band's home town of Flint, Michigan.

The band was formed in 1968 by Mark Farner (guitars, lead vocals), Don Brewer (drums, lead vocals) from Terry Knight and the Pack, and Mel Schacher (bass guitar) from 'Question Mark & the Mysterians'. Former band-mate Terry Knight soon became their manager and named the band after the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, a well-known rail line in Michigan. First achieving recognition at the 1969 Atlanta Pop Festival, the band was signed by Capitol Records, after a raucous, well-received set on the first day of the festival. Grand Funk Railroad were asked back to play two additional days. Patterned after hard rock power trios, such as Cream, Grand Funk Railroad, with Terry Knight's marketing savvy developed their own populist style. In 1970 they sold more albums than any other American band and had become a major concert attraction.

The first record in 1969 was On Time, which eventually went gold in 1970, that same year they earned their second gold record award for their second album Grand Funk, (aka the Red Album) and A rare hit single also followed in 1970, "I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)" from the album Closer to Home, which was stylistically Close to the old Terry Knight and the Pack. A year later, in 1971, they broke the attendance record set by The Beatles' at Shea Stadium, selling out in just 72 hours.

The "Loco-Motion" would be Grand Funk's second chart topping single, in 1974. The "Loco-Motion" is a 1962 pop song written by American songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King. The song is notable for making the American Top 5 three times in three different decades: for Little Eva in 1962 (U.S. #1); for Grand Funk Railroad in 1974 (U.S. #1); and for Kylie Minogue in 1988 (U.S. #3). It is ranked #350 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". [wikipedia]