Helen Reddy - The "I Am Woman" Era and Stardom

The "I Am Woman" Era and Stardom

Within a year, Wald relocated Reddy and Traci to Los Angeles, where Wald was hired at Capitol Records, the label where Reddy was to attain stardom; however, Wald was hired and fired the same day. Reddy became frustrated as Wald found success managing such acts as Deep Purple and Tiny Tim without making any evident effort to promote Reddy; after eighteen months of career inactivity, Reddy gave Wald an ultimatum: "he either revitalize her career or get out...Jeff threw himself into his new career as Mr. Helen Reddy. Five months of phone calls to Capitol Records executive Artie Mogull finally paid off: Mogull agreed to let Helen cut one single if Jeff promised not to call for a month. She sang I Believe in Music penned by the legendary Mac Davis and backed it with I Don't Know How to Love Him from Rice & Webber's Jesus Christ SuperstarThe A side fell flat but then some Canadian DJ's flipped the record over and...``It became a hit – #13 in June 1971 – and Helen Reddy was on her way."

Reddy's stardom was consolidated when her single "I Am Woman" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1972. The song was co-written by Reddy with Ray Burton; 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 could not 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. "I Am Woman" was recorded and released in May 1972. but barely dented the charts in its initial release. However, female listeners soon adopted the song as an anthem and began requesting it from their local radio stations in droves, resulting in its September chart re-entry and eventual #1 hit status. "I Am Woman" earned a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; at the awards ceremony, Reddy concluded her acceptance speech by famously thanking God "because She makes everything possible". The success of "I am Woman" made Reddy the first native of Australia to top the US charts and also to win a Grammy.

Over the next five years, Reddy 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"" (#12), "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). Reddy's total sales figures for the United Sales are estimated in excess of 10 million singles and 15 million albums; her worldwide album sales tally is estimated in excess of 25 million.

At the height of her fame in the late 1970s, 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, as she encouraged her friend to move from Britain to the United States in the early 1970s, giving her the best opportunity to expand her career. At a subsequent party at Reddy's house after a chance meeting with Allan Carr, the film's producer, Newton-John then won the starring role in the hit film version of the musical Grease.