Helen Reddy
(born October 25, 1941) is an Australian/American singer-songwriter and actress. She has won a Grammy Award, appeared on Broadway and feature films, and been credited with writing and singing one of the most iconic and culturally significant songs of the 1970s, "I Am Woman".
Reddy became one of the world's most successful female singers of the early 1970s music scene. Reddy scored many certified gold hit records including three #1 singles and fifteen Top 40 pop singles on Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. She has sold more than 15 million albums and 10 million singles worldwide. Selling a total of 25 million records worldwide. She also became the first Australian to have a #1 single in the United States, win a Grammy Award, and have her own variety shows on United States television. Born and raised in Australia, Reddy became a naturalized United States citizen in 1974. [1] In 2002, she retired from performing concerts and recording and now resides in Sydney, Australia.
She was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame in 2006.
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HELEN REDDY TICKETS
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Early years
Reddy was born into a well-known Australian show business family in
Melbourne,
Victoria. Her mother, Stella (
née Lamond), was an actress, and her father, Max Reddy, was a writer, producer, and actor.
[2] Her parents performed on the Australian
vaudeville circuit. Her half-sister,
Toni Lamond, and her nephew, Tony Sheldon, are actor-singers. Reddy is
Jewish
[3] and of part
Irish ancestry.
[4] She attended
Tintern Girls Grammar School.
Reddy began performing on stage with her parents at four years of age. In her late teens she was briefly married to an older musician, with whom she had a daughter, Traci, but they
divorced soon afterwards. After beginning her career in
radio and
television in Australia, she won a talent contest on the Australian
pop music TV show
Bandstand
which enabled her to move to the United States in 1966. Settling initially in
New York, she met Jeff Wald, then an agent with the
William Morris Agency; after living together for only four days, she and Wald married; he subsequently became her manager.
After a stint in
Chicago, the family moved to
Los Angeles, California, where Reddy tried to establish herself as a recording artist. Twenty-seven labels rejected her before she was finally signed to a contract with
Capitol Records in 1970.
The "I am Woman" era and stardom
After years of trying to get her name out, Helen Reddy's first Top 40 U.S. hit (1971) was a cover of "
I Don't Know How To Love Him" (from
Jesus Christ Superstar
). After it reached #13 in mid-1971, the music industry and record buying public began to take notice.
In 1972, Reddy co-wrote, with Australian musician Ray Burton, the song "
I Am Woman", which became a worldwide
feminist anthem, worldwide hit, and her first U.S #1 hit on the
Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Reddy has attributed the impetus for writing "I Am Woman" and her early awareness of the women's movement to expatriate Australian rock critic and pioneer feminist
Lillian Roxon. Reddy is quoted in Fred Bronson's
The Billboard Book of Number One Hits
as saying that she was looking for songs to record which reflected the positive self-image she had gained from joining the women's movement, but couldn't find any, so "I realized that the song I was looking for didn't exist, and I was going to have to write it myself." The single actually barely dented the charts on its initial release in the summer of 1972, but it wasn't long before female listeners adopted the song as an anthem and began requesting it from their local radio stations in droves, spurring it on to re-enter the charts in September and become a hit. "I Am Woman" earned a
Grammy Award for Female Pop Vocal Performance and at the awards ceremony she concluded her acceptance speech by famously thanking
God "because
She
makes everything possible".
Over the next five years, she had more than a dozen other U.S. Top 40 hits including two more #1 hits. These included the Alex Harvey country ballad "
Delta Dawn" (#1, 1973), "
Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" (#3), "
Keep on Singing" (#15, 1974), "
You and Me Against the World" (written by
Paul Williams and featuring daughter Traci reciting the spoken bookends) (#9), "Emotion" (an
English version of the
French tune "
Amoureuse"), "Peaceful" (#15), "
Angie Baby" (#1), "Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady" (#8, 1975),
Richard Kerr-
Will Jennings-penned "
Somewhere in the Night" (#19; later a bigger hit for
Barry Manilow), and the
Carole King-
Gerry Goffin song "I Can't Hear You No More" (1976). Her last Top 20 record was a 1977 revival of
Cilla Black's 1964 hit "
You're My World", co-produced by
Kim Fowley. Reddy's final chart record was "I Can't Say Goodbye To You" in 1981. She was most successful on the
Adult Contemporary charts, scoring seven #1 hits there over a three-year span, from "Delta Dawn" to "
I Can't Hear You No More."
At the height of her fame in the late 1970s, Helen Reddy was a headliner, with a full chorus of backup singers and dancers to standing-room-only crowds on
The Strip in
Las Vegas. Reddy's opening acts were the then up and coming Barry Manilow, and
Joan Rivers. In 1976, Reddy covered the
Beatles song "
The Fool on the Hill" for the musical documentary
All This and World War II
.
Reddy was also instrumental in furthering the career of
Olivia Newton-John; she encouraged her friend to move from
Britain to the United States in the early 1970s, and Newton-John won the starring role in the hit film version of the musical
Grease
after a chance meeting with the film's producer,
Allan Carr, at a party at Reddy's house.
Behind the hits
Both
Bette Midler and the young
Tanya Tucker recorded their own versions of "
Delta Dawn" just before Reddy recorded hers. Once Tucker's version became a Top 10 hit on the
country charts,
Barbra Streisand's producer Tom Catalano decided that Streisand could have a pop hit with it, so he had an instrumental backing track recorded. Fortunately for Reddy, Streisand disliked the song and refused to record it, so
United Artists song promoter Wally Schuster called Jeff Wald and offered the song, and the completed backing track, to Reddy, who put her own vocal on it.
Reddy's version of "Delta Dawn" was released in the summer of 1973, just two days ahead Midler's version, but
disc jockeys preferred Reddy's rendition and it eventually went to #1 on the U.S. charts and was a hit in several other countries, including Australia.
She was equally fortunate with "
Angie Baby" (written by
Alan O'Day); it was first offered to
Cher, who turned it down, so it was then offered to Reddy, who snapped it up, and it became her third U.S. #1 single (Cher was similarly unlucky with the song "
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"; after husband
Sonny Bono turned it down, it was recorded by
Vicki Lawrence, who scored a #1 hit with it in 1973). The cryptic lyrics of "Angie Baby" have inspired a number of listener theories as to what the song is really about, but Reddy has refused to comment on its true storyline, partly because she has said she enjoys hearing other listeners' interpretations. Reddy has also said that "Angie Baby" was the one song she never had to push radio stations into playing.
Film and theatre
Reddy has lent her acting and singing talents to many stage and screen productions. Her film career includes roles in
Airport 1975
and
Walt Disney's
Pete's Dragon
(in which she sang "
Candle on the Water," which has become one of her best-known songs despite only charting on the A/C charts), and she appeared in numerous
television specials. She also hosted two television series, including her own show and a late-night music program,
The Midnight Special
.
Reddy's stage credits include performances in
Anything Goes
,
Call Me Madam
,
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
, and works by British playwright
Willy Russell. Reddy appeared both on Broadway and in the West End of London in the musical
Blood Brothers
, and in four productions of
Shirley Valentine
.
Notable stage roles include:
- Shirley Valentine - as "Shirley"
- *Stage West, Canada (June, 1997)
- *12 U.S. City Tour (February - April 1996)
- *Theatre by the Sea, R.I. (1995)
- Blood Brothers
- as "Mrs. Johnstone"
- *West End (1997)
- *Music Box Theatre, Broadway (January – May 1995)
- *Empire Theatre, Liverpool (1995)
- Love, Julie
- as "Gail Sinclair"
- *Sharon Stage, Connecticut (August, 1996)
- *Cape Cod (July 1996)
- *Westport Country Playhouse (June 1996)
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood
- as "Edwin Drood/Miss Alice Nutting"
- *Sacramento Music Circus (July, 1988)
- Call Me Madam
- as "Mrs. Sally Adams"
- *Sacramento Music Circus (August, 1986)
- Anything Goes
- as "Reno Sweeney"
- *Long Beach Civic Light Opera (July, 1987)
- *Sacramento Music Circus (July, 1985)
Personal life
Community involvement
Active in community affairs, Reddy served as the state of California's Parks and Recreation commissioner for three years. In 2002, she retired from performing and moved from
Santa Monica, California, to
Norfolk Island.
Reddy published an autobiography,
The Woman I Am
, and appeared on the
Today
show in May 2006. She was also added to the ARIA Hall Of Fame, with a tribute performance by
Vanessa Amorosi of "I Am Woman" at the ceremony. Reddy suffers from
Addison's disease, a failure of the
adrenal glands, which requires constant treatment.
[5] She also made a cameo in the
Family Guy
episode and
Star Wars
parody "
Blue Harvest" as a member of the
Red Squadron alongside
Red Five (
Chris Griffin),
Red Buttons,
Redd Foxx,
Big Red,
Red October,
Simply Red and others.
Reddy has retired from performing concerts around the world, and is now a practicing Clinical
Hypnotherapist based in
Sydney and is Patron of the
Australian Society of Clinical Hypnotherapists.
Marriages
Reddy has been married and divorced three times, and has two children.
? (? - ?) Child: Traci
[6]
Jeff Wald (25 May 1968 - January 1983) Child: Jordan
[7]
Milton Ruth (29 June 1983 - 1995)
Discography
Studio albums
Year
| Album
| US [8]
| RIAA [9]
| Label
|
1970
| I Don't Know How to Love Him
| 100
| Gold
| Capitol
|
Helen Reddy
| 167
|
|
1972
| I Am Woman
| 14
| Platinum
|
1973
| Long Hard Climb
| 8
| Gold
|
1974
| Love Song for Jeffrey
| 11
| Gold
|
Free and Easy
| 8
| Gold
|
1975
| No Way to Treat a Lady
| 11
| Gold
|
1976
| Music, Music
| 16
| Gold
|
1977
| Ear Candy
| 75
|
|
1978
| We'll Sing in the Sunshine
|
|
|
1979
| Reddy
|
|
|
1980
| Take What You Find
|
|
|
1981
| Play Me Out
|
|
| MCA
|
1983
| Imagination
|
|
|
1998
| Center Stage
|
|
| Varese Sarabande
|
Compilation & live albums
Year
| Album
| US
| RIAA
| Label
|
1975
| Helen Reddy's Greatest Hits (and more)
| 5
| 2× Multi-Platinum
| Capitol
|
1978
| Live in London
|
1990
| Feel So Young
|
|
| Helen Reddy Inc.
|
2000
| The Best Christmas Ever
|
|
| EMI / Capitol
|
2006
| The Woman I Am: The Definitive Collection
|
|
|
Come with Me: The Rest of Helen Reddy
|
|
| Helen Reddy Inc.
|
Singles
Year
| Single
| Chart Positions [10]
| Album
|
US Hot 100
| US AC
| UK [11]
|
1971
| "I Don't Know How to Love Him"
| 13
| 12
|
| I Don't Know How to Love Him
|
"Crazy Love"
| 51
| 8
|
|
"No Sad Song"
| 62
|
|
| Helen Reddy
|
1972
| "I Am Woman"[A
| 1
| 2
|
| I Am Woman
|
1973
| "Peaceful"
| 12
| 2
|
|
"Delta Dawn"[A
| 1
| 1
|
| Long Hard Climb
|
"Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)"[A
| 3
| 1
|
|
1974
| "Keep on Singing"
| 15
| 1
|
| Love Song for Jeffrey
|
"You and Me Against the World"
| 9
| 1
|
|
"Angie Baby"[A
| 1
| 1
| 5
| Free and Easy
|
1975
| "Emotion"
| 22
| 1
|
|
"Bluebird"
| 35
| 5
|
| No Way to Treat a Lady
|
"Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady"
| 8
| 1
|
|
"Somewhere in the Night"
| 19
| 2
|
|
1976
| "I Can't Hear You No More"
| 29
| 1
|
| Music, Music
|
"Music Is My Life"
| 29
| flip
|
|
1977
| "You're My World"
| 18
| 5
|
| Ear Candy
|
"The Happy Girls"
| 57
|
|
|
"Candle on the Water"
|
| 27
|
| Pete's Dragon soundtrack
|
1978
| "We'll Sing in the Sunshine"
|
| 12
|
| We'll Sing in the Sunshine
|
"Ready or Not"
| 73
|
|
|
1979
| "Make Love to Me"
| 60
|
|
| Reddy
|
1981
| "I Can't Say Goodbye to You"
| 88
|
| 43
| Play Me Out
|
;Notes
- A^
Certified Gold by the RIAA.
Bibliography
- The Woman I Am
(2006) ISBN 1-58542-489-7
See also
- List of best-selling music artists
- List of notable Melburnians
References
- Talking Heads - Helen Reddy
- Helen Reddy Biography (1942-)
- PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
- Autobiography: "The Woman I Am"
- Addison's Awareness Week 7th – 11th May 2007
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0714761/bio
- http://www.filmreference.com/film/23/Helen-Reddy.html
- Billboard chart positions - albums
- &artist=Helen%20Reddy&format=ALBUM&debutLP=&category=&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2008&sort=Artist&perPage=25
- Billboard chart positions - singles
- British Hit Singles & Albums