Imagine, she could have been in the Pantheon of the Greats had it not been for the four guys from Liverpool.
NOTE: The name Shapiro is one that has two distinct camps.
1) In one camp, the one I grew up in the Jewish Community in Shaker Heights and Beachwood, Ohio, the name is pronounced "SHAW-peer-oh".
2) In the other camp, aka, the Philadelphia School, the name is "sha-PIE-row"
Just so you, know, the people in Philly are WRONG.
it's sha-PEER-oh, says this philly bitch!
ReplyDeleteI'm a Smallville-By-Way-Of-California bitch and I say sha-PEER-oh ... too.
ReplyDeleteShe was somewhat overshadowed by the rise of Dusty Springfield et al in the latter part of the 1960s, but nevertheless still remained a popular entertainer in cabaret and jazz circles for many years. Here in the UK (she was born just down the road from Dolores Delargo Towers, in the verrrry Jewish neighbourhood of Clapton) her name is pronounced "Sha-PEER-o". Jx
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Beachwood and my parents had close friends in Columbus who called themselves sha-PEER-oh; in fact I never knew there was any alternate pronunciation. Perhaps that was what you meant to indicate by your first transliteration spelling.
ReplyDeleteBack in the 1980s or 90s, one of the TV netwprk station in Cleveland (WKYC, I think) got a sportscaster who used the affected pronunciation and it became something of a eyeroll joke.
DeleteThat explains it. I was around Cleveland then, but had stopped watching TV.
DeleteBy the way, I just listened to Helen Shapiro on Youtube, and she has a great voice, but perhaps not as much personality as some other singers (based on my brief sample). --Jim
The people in Philly are ALWAYS "wrong".
ReplyDelete