THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,611) Roger Earl Okin — “Stop and You Will Become Aware”
After playing a selection from Fading Yellow Volume 1, here is one from the latest in the superlative series — Volume 21 — which came out late last year. Roger Earl Okin gives us “his own superb orchestrated pop version” of “the northern soul dancer” (liner notes to the CD comp Fading Yellow Volume 21: Dreamy Day: Another Selection of Magical Pop-Sike Gems from Around the World) that he wrote and Helen Shapiro released two years earlier. His later version is a “shining radiant dance pop gem with very catchy woodwind riffs”. happening45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdAl-QXnUuE
Susan Benn tells us of Okin:
[Roger Earl Okin is] an eccentric English performer . . . who has an incredible history of working with the greats. He performed on stage with Paul McCartney’s band Wings and Van Morrison, wrote songs for Cilla Black and Bing Crosby and was producer and arranger of the Ella Fitzgerald’s Songbook series. Okin is also one of the finest performers outside of Brazil of the bossa nova beat, a style of samba developed in the late 50s and early 60s in Rio de Janeiro. . . . During his performances with guitar and keyboard, Okin is renowned for extraordinary “vocal trumpet” solos. In creating the sound of a trumpet by simply by moving his lips, you would swear he was playing an actual instrument when you shut your eyes to listen to these uncanny sounds he makes. Deaf in one ear due to meningitis as a child, Okin was a school master in 1979 when McCartney discovered his talents. Ever since he has kept his 50s car, still wears 50s and 60s attire, always with pristine white spats. . . . Earl Okin is truly one of a kind…an eccentric genius!
RYE News a national treasure
Wikipedia adds:
[Okin] is an English singer-songwriter, musician and comedian. . . . He holds a degree in philosophy from the University of Kent at Canterbury (1968) and worked as a schoolmaster for 11 years before being invited on a 1979 tour with Paul McCartney & Wings. . . . Some of his songs were covered during the 1960s by Cilla Black, Georgie Fame and Helen Shapiro . . . . During the 1970s, Okin started to perform as a support act in large venues. . . . However, it was the tour with Wings which prompted him to pursue his musical career full-time. . . . [H]is second career [was] on the “alternative comedy” circuit . . . . However, his act continues to be primarily musical. . . . In 1983, he began to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe where he performed over 500 shows. . . . Okin continues to work as a songwriter and jazz singer/musician, with a particular interest in Bossa Nova. He gives concerts in Brazil from time to time, as well as touring his one-man show, a mixture of music and comedy, worldwide.
1,612) Helen Shapiro — “Stop and You Will Become Aware”
Helen Shapiro’s “barnstorming” (Joe Marchese, https://theseconddisc.com/2020/11/04/ace-round-up-part-one-helen-shapiros-face-the-music-collects-rare-1967-1984-singles/) “psych-soul classic” version (Rob Chapman, https://www.rob-chapman.com/cake-out-in-the-rain) “with a big Swingin’ London arrangement by Zack Laurence” (Marc Myers, https://www.jazzwax.com/2024/12/rob-ronnie-and-helen.html) became a “Monster Northern Soul record back in the late 70’s”. (ivanward5615, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIqeG1tTUgk)
I do agree with londonbear8506: “i prefer the original by Earl Okin, its more mid tempo and blissful” and will2741: “agree, this is good but Earl wins it for me, fantastic sixties pop single”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtRuFs4Wtmw)
Bruce Eder writes of Shapiro:
Helen Shapiro is remembered today . . . as the slightly awkward actress/singer in Richard Lester’s 1962 debut feature film, It’s Trad, Dad. From 1961 until 1963, however, Shapiro was England’s teenage pop music queen, at one point selling 40,000 copies daily of her biggest single, “Walking Back to Happiness[]” . . . . A deceptively young 14 when she was discovered, Shapiro had a rich, expressive voice properly sounding like the property of someone twice as old . . . . She grew up in London’s East End and was performing with a ukulele at age nine as part of a school group . . . . She subsequently sang with her brother[‘s] . . . trad jazz turned skiffle outfit at local clubs before enrolling in classes at Maurice Burman’s music school in London. Burman was so taken with Helen Shapiro’s voice that he waived the tuition to keep her as a student. He later brought her to the attention of Norrie Paramor, then one of EMI’s top pop producers . . . . She cut her first single, “Please Don’t Treat Me Like a Child,” a few weeks later and broke onto the British charts in 1961. . . . Shapiro’s voice showed the maturity and sensibilities of someone far beyond their teen years; her depth of emotion, coupled with the richness of her singing, made her an extraordinary new phenomenon on the British pop scene. . . . [H]er second single, a slow ballad called “You Don’t Know,” . . . managed to appeal to listeners across several age groups and hit number one in England. This was followed by the greatest recording of her career, “Walking Back to Happiness[]” . . . . Her next record, “Tell Me What He Said” . . . was held out of the top spot by the Shadows’ “Wonderful Land.” In April of 1962, Shapiro made her movie debut in . . . It’s Trad, Dad, but her single of “Let’s Talk About Love” (featured in the movie) never broke the Top 20. . . . [H]er last Top Ten record [was] “Little Miss Lonely.” She made the charts once more with “Keep Away From Other Girls,” the first song by Burt Bacharach to make the British Top 40. . . . Shapiro was . . . a female pop/rock crooner . . . with a style all her own, and should have been able to cut a path for herself well into the ’60s in the music marketplace. . . . [but she] faded from the charts . . . . She still headlined tours in the United Kingdom and in early 1963, she made the acquaintance of . . . the Beatles. She headlined the Beatles’ first national tour of England and Shapiro and the group enjoyed each other’s company. . . . [T]hey . . . wrote “Misery” for her[, but a]stonishingly, EMI . . . declined to give Shapiro the chance to record [it], costing her the chance to become the first artist to cover a Lennon-McCartney song . . . . [L]later in 1963 . . . . she cut the very first recording of “It’s My Party.” And again, EMI failed to get behind the single, sitting on its release until a virtual unknown named Lesley Gore got her rendition out first on Mercury and topped the U.S. charts. Shapiro’s career at EMI ended in 1963 and her periodic attempts to resume recording . . . over the next decade failed to generate any chart action. Shapiro has busied herself over the years very successfully as an actress . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/helen-shapiro-mn0000571112#biography
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