in London's Baker Street, after the school produced singing star Alma Cogan. "I had always wanted to be a singer. I had no desire to slavishly follow Alma's style, but chose the school merely because of Alma's success", she said in a 1962 interview. Burman's connections included John Schroeder, a young songwriter and A&R man at EMI's Columbia Records, who recorded a demo of Shapiro singing "Birth of the Blues" and, motivated by her singing, signed her to the label. Early career In February 1961, aged fourteen, Shapiro released her first single, "Don't Treat Me Like a Child". The song was recorded at EMI Recording Studios, Abbey Road with a nine-piece band under the direction of Martin Slavin. After Helen's appearance on the ITV music programme Thank Your Lucky Stars, the record took off and reached No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1961. According to AllMusic, Shapiro's rich and mature voice made her "an extraordinary new phenomenon on the British pop scene." Her next single, the ballad "You Don't Know", topped the chart in August. The follow-up, "Walkin' Back to Happiness", was written by John Schroeder and Mike Hawker and featured backing orchestrations by Norrie Paramor. The single quickly reached the top of the chart with far greater sales than her last in October 1961, by which time Shapiro had turned 15. She had initially been reluctant to record the song as she considered it old-fashioned and corny. Both of Shapiro's No. 1 singles sold over a million copies, earning her two gold discs. Her mature voice made her an overnight sensation, as well as the youngest female chart topper in the UK. Shapiro's next single release, "Tell Me What He Said", peaked at No. 2, meaning each of her first four single releases made the top three of the UK Singles Chart. Her success led to film roles; she appeared as herself in the Billy Fury film Play It Cool and played the lead female role in Richard Lester's It's Trad, Dad!. Her final UK Top Ten hit single was with the ballad "Little Miss Lonely", which peaked at No. 8 for two weeks in 1962. Before she was sixteen years old, Shapiro had been voted Britain's "Top Female Singer". The Beatles' first national tour of Britain, in the late winter and early spring of 1963, was as one of her supporting acts. During the course