THE HELEN SHAPIRO FRIENDS CLUB

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Helen on recording in Nashville:

'Going to Nashville was a big thrill. Norrie Paramor was the co-producer with a guy called Al Kasha in the control booth. Elvis Presley's group, the Jordanaires, did the vocal backing with the help of three girls, Milly, Dolly and Prissy. I thought I had really arrived, using Elvis' backing group'. Helen found the experience of recording in Nashville to be much less stiff and formal than in London: 'The studio was something of a surprise, though. It was just like a shack or a small barn. There were no musical scores. We just had a rough chord chart, the demo acetates we'd been given to work from and a turntable. We would talk about which song we'd do, stick the demo on the turntable and work out the chords, instruments and vocals. I was plonked in the middle of the studio with a mike. The musicians were all around me. I loved it. The guitarist brought in a fuzz-box to use on "Woe Is Me", which Jackie DeShannon had written, and the three girls added the wailing sound, very black and soulful. We all had high hopes of the single doing well but it was way ahead of its time. Another good single, "Not Responsible", was released next. The piece de resistance which we were saving until last was a song called "It's My Party". Right from the first time we heard the song on the rough demo back in London, we thought we were going to sock them between the eyes with that one. We'd been told that the song was an exclusive for me but by the time we got round to releasing it Lesley Gore had come out with her version which was an enormous hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Her version was much more punchy than mine but if we'd had any inkling that something like that was going to happen we'd have released my recording first'.