Helen Reddy

Reddy recalled her 1966 appearance at the Three Rivers Inn in Syracuse, New York—"[T]here were like twelve people in the audience"[21]—as being typical of her early U.S. performing career. Her lack of a work permit made it difficult to obtain singing jobs, and she was forced to make trips to Canada, which did not require work permits for citizens of Commonwealth countries. In 1968, Martin St James, an Australian stage hypnotist she had met in New York City, threw Reddy a party with an admission price of US$5 (equivalent to $38.96 in 2021) to enable Reddy—then down to her last US$12 (equivalent to $93.51 in 2021)—to pay her rent. On this occasion, Reddy met her future manager and husband, Jeff Wald, a 22-year-old secretary at the William Morris Agency who crashed the party.[22] Reddy told People in 1975, "[Wald] didn't pay the five dollars, but it was love at first sight."[18]

Wald recalled that Reddy and he married three days after meeting, and along with daughter Traci, the couple took up residence at the Hotel Albert in Greenwich Village.[22] Reddy later stated that she married Wald "out of desperation over her right to work and live in the United States."[23] According to New York Magazine, Wald was fired from William Morris soon after having met Reddy, and "Helen supported them for six months doing $35-a-night hospital and charity benefits. They were so broke that they snuck out of a hotel room carrying their clothes in paper bags." Reddy recalled: "When we did eat, it was spaghetti, and we spent what little money we had on cockroach spray."[18] They left New York City for Chicago, where Wald landed a job as talent coordinator at Mister Kelly's. While in Chicago, Reddy gained a reputation singing in local lounges, including Mister Kelly's, and in 1968 she landed a deal with Fontana Records, a division of major-label Chicago-based Mercury Records.[19] Her first single, "One Way Ticket", on Fontana was not an American hit, but it did give Reddy her first appearance on any chart, as it peaked at number 83 in her native Australia.[24]

Within a year, Wald moved Reddy and Traci to Los Angeles, where he was hired at Capitol Records, the label under which Reddy was to attain stardom; however, Wald was hired and fired the same day.[19] At the same time, in 1969, Reddy enrolled at the University of California Los Angeles to study psychology and philosophy part-time.[25][26]

Reddy became frustrated as Wald found success managing acts such as Deep Purple and Tiny Tim without making any evident effort to promote her; after 18 months of career inactivity, Reddy gave Wald an ultimatum: "he [must] either revitalise 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 did "I Believe in Music" penned by Mac Davis backed with "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar. The A-side fell flat, but then some Canadian DJs flipped the record over and it became a hit – number 13 in June 1971 – and Helen Reddy was on her way."[19]

Reddy's stardom was solidified when her single "I Am Woman" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1972. The song was co-written by Reddy with Ray Burton; Reddy 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 having said 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 realised that the song I was looking for didn't exist, and I was going to have to write it myself."[27] "I Am Woman" first appeared on her debut album I Don't Know How to Love Him, released in May 1971. A new recording of the song was released as a single in May 1972 but barely dented the charts. 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 number-one peak. "I Am Woman" earned Reddy 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 Australian singer to top the U.S. charts.[28]

Three decades after her Grammy, Reddy discussed the song's iconic status: "I think it came along at the right time. I'd gotten involved in the women's movement, and there were a lot of songs on the radio about being weak and being dainty and all those sort of things. All the women in my family, they were strong women. They worked. They lived through the Depression and a world war, and they were just strong women. I certainly didn't see myself as being dainty," she said.[7]

Over the next five years following her first success, Reddy had more than a dozen U.S. top-40 hits, including two more number-one hits. These tracks included Kenny Rankin's "Peaceful" (number 12), the Alex Harvey country ballad "Delta Dawn" (number one), Linda Laurie's "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" (number three), Austin Roberts' "Keep on Singing" (number 15), Paul Williams' "You and Me Against the World" (featuring daughter Traci reciting the spoken bookends) (number 9), Alan O'Day's "Angie Baby" (number one), Véronique Sanson and Patti Dahlstrom's "Emotion" (number 22), Harriet Schock's "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" (number eight), and the Richard Kerr/Will Jennings-penned "Somewhere in the Night" (number 19). She also had two Australian number-one singles, while "Angie Baby" was her only U.K. top-40 hit.[29]

From left to right: Dionne Warwick, Don Kirshner, Reddy and Olivia Newton-John in 1974

On 23 July 1974, Reddy received a star, located at 1750 Vine Street, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in the music industry.[30][31]

In late 1975, Reddy toured East Asia, Australia and New Zealand and collected 16 gold records, including 6 gold records in Australia and 6 gold records in New Zealand.[32]

At the height of her fame in the mid 1970s, Reddy was a headliner, with a full chorus of backup singers and dancers to standing-room-only crowds on the Las Vegas Strip. Among Reddy's opening acts were Joan Rivers, David Letterman, Bill Cosby, and Barry Manilow. In 1976, Reddy recorded the Beatles' song "The Fool on the Hill" for the musical documentary All This and World War II.[33]

Reddy was also instrumental in supporting the career of friend Olivia Newton-John, encouraging her to emigrate from England to the United States in the early 1970s, giving her professional opportunities that did not exist in the United Kingdom. At a party at Reddy's house after a chance meeting with Allan Carr, a film producer, Newton-John won the starring role in the hit film version of the musical Grease.[34]

Reddy was most successful on the Easy Listening chart, scoring eight number-one hits there over a three-year span, from "Delta Dawn" in 1973 to "I Can't Hear You No More" in 1976. However, the latter track evidenced a sharp drop in popularity for Reddy, with a number-29 peak on the Billboard Hot 100. Reddy's 1977 remake of Cilla Black's 1964 hit "You're My World" indicated comeback potential, with a number-18 peak, but this track – co-produced by Kim Fowley – would prove to be Reddy's last top-40 hit. Its source album, Ear Candy, Reddy's 10th album, became her first album to not attain at least gold status since her second full-length release, 1972's Helen Reddy.[35]

In 1978, Reddy sang as a backup singer on Gene Simmons's solo album on the song "True Confessions".[36] That year also saw the release of Reddy's only live album, Live in London, recorded at the London Palladium.

Of Reddy's eight subsequent single releases on Capitol, five reached the Easy Listening top 50 – including "Candle on the Water", from the 1977 Disney film Pete's Dragon (which starred Reddy). Only three ranked on the Billboard Hot 100: "The Happy Girls" (number 57) – the follow-up to "You're My World", and besides "I Am Woman", Reddy's only chart item that she co-wrote – and the disco tracks "Ready or Not" (number 73) and "Make Love to Me" (number 60), the latter a cover of an Australian hit by Kelly Marie, which gave Reddy a lone R&B chart ranking at number 59. Reddy also made it to number 98 on the Country chart with "Laissez les bon Temps Rouler", the B-side to "The Happy Girls".[37]

Without the impetus of any major hits, Reddy's four Capitol album releases subsequent to Ear Candy failed to chart. In 1981, Reddy said: "I signed [with Capitol] ten years ago...And when you are with a company so long you tend to be taken for granted. For the last three years, I didn't feel I was getting the support from them."[38]

May 1981 had the release of Play Me Out, Reddy's debut album for MCA Records, which Reddy said had "made me a deal we [Reddy and Wald] couldn't refuse"; "we shopped around and felt the most enthusiasm at MCA."[38] Reddy's new label affiliation, though, would result in only one minor success; her remake of Becky Hobbs's 1979 country hit "I Can't Say Goodbye to You" returned her for the last time to the Billboard Hot 100 at number 88; it also returned Reddy to the charts in the UK and Ireland (her sole previous hit in both was "Angie Baby"). Reddy's 14 November 1981 Top of the Pops performance brought "I Can't Say Goodbye to You" into the UK top 50; the track would rise there no higher than number 43, but in Ireland reached number 16, giving Reddy her final high placing on a major national chart. MCA released one further Reddy album: Imagination, in 1983; it would prove to be Reddy's final release as a career recording artist.[39]

The unsuccessful Imagination was released just after the finalisation of Reddy's divorce from Wald, whose alleged subsequent interference in her career Reddy blamed for the decline of her career profile in the mid-1980s: "Several of my performing contracts were cancelled, and one promoter told me he couldn't book me in case a certain someone 'came after him with a shotgun'."[23] Reddy states that she was effectively being blacklisted from her established performance areas, which led to her pursuing a career in theatre, where Wald had no significant influence.[40]

In 1990, Reddy issued Feel So Young on her own label – an album that includes remakes of Reddy's repertoire favourites. Meanwhile, her one recording in the interim had been the 1987 dance maxisingle "Mysterious Kind", on which Reddy had vocally supported Jessica Williams. The 1997 release of Center Stage was an album of show tunes that Reddy recorded for Varèse Sarabande; the track "Surrender" – originating in Sunset Boulevard – was remixed for release as a dance maxisingle. Reddy's final album was the 2000 seasonal release The Best Christmas Ever. In April 2015, Reddy released a cover of The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" for the album Keep Calm and Salute The Beatles on the Purple Pyramid label.[41]

Reddy (second from right) in early 2007 with students at a Women's Leadership conference in Sydney

Reddy announced her retirement from performing in 2002, giving her farewell performance with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. The same year, she moved from her longtime residence in Santa Monica, California, back to her native Australia to spend time with her family, living first on Norfolk Island[42] before taking up residence in Sydney.[40]

She also earned a degree in clinical hypnotherapy and neurolinguistic programming. She was a practicing clinical hypnotherapist and patron of the Australian Society of Clinical Hypnotherapists.[43][33]

At a ceremony in August 2006, Reddy was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame by actress singer, Toni Collette, who described her song, "I Am Woman", as "timeless". The song was performed by fellow Australian, Vanessa Amorosi.[44]

In April 2008, Reddy was reported to be living "simply and frugally off song royalties, pension funds, and social security...[renting] a 13th-floor apartment with a 180° view of Sydney Harbour."[45] Her apartment had been recently appraised, causing Reddy concern over its future affordability; however, the New York-based landlord learned his tenant's identity and wrote her: "I had no idea it was the Helen Reddy who was living in my unit. Because of what you have done for millions of women all over the world, I will not sell or raise your rent. I hope you'll be very happy living there for years to come."[45]

For several years, Reddy maintained that she would not return to the stage. In 2008, she stated, "It's not going to happen. I've moved on," and explained that her voice had deepened to a lower key and she wasn't sure if she would be able to sing some of her hits. She also said she had simply lost interest in performing. "I have very wide-ranging interests," she said.[45] In 2011 she was interviewed by Australian television, and said she was very happy to be retired from show business.[46]

In 2011, Reddy decided to return to performing after being buoyed by the warm reception she received when she sang at her sister's 80th birthday party. "I hadn't heard my voice in 10 years, and when I heard it coming over the speaker, it was like: 'Oh, that’s not bad. Maybe I should do that again,'" Reddy explained in 2013.[7]

Being more in control of her performances also appealed to Reddy, who said, "I have more leeway in the songs that I choose to sing. I'm not locked into what the record company wants."[7] She explained, "One of the reasons that I'm coming back to singing is because I'm not doing the greatest hits. I'm doing the songs that I always loved. So many are album cuts that never got any airplay, and they're gorgeous songs."[47] She also performed many of her best-known songs, including, "Angie Baby", "You and Me Against the World", a medley of "Delta Dawn"/"Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady", and "I Am Woman", reasoning on the latter that the audience "comes to hear" it.[7]

She said she refused to sing "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" because she disliked the monotony of the repeated chorus. "They used to have a contest on the radio that you could get two free tickets to Helen Reddy's show if you could tell us how many times she sang "leave me alone". I think it was like 42 times," she said.[7]

Reddy appeared in downtown Los Angeles at the 2017 Women's March on 21 January. The march for women's rights and unity following the inauguration of Donald Trump brought out 750,000 people. Reddy was introduced by actress Jamie Lee Curtis and sang an a cappella version of "I Am Woman".[48][49]

In August 2015, unnamed sources revealed that Reddy was diagnosed with dementia and had moved into the Motion Picture and Television Fund's Samuel Goldwyn Center, where she was cared for by family and friends.[50]

Reddy became a naturalised American citizen in 1974, saying after the ceremony, "I feel like I'd like to have a cup of tea and a good cry."[67] She resumed her Australian citizenship subsequently, when the opportunity to maintain dual American–Australian citizenship became available.[1]

Reddy was active in community affairs:

• In the 1970s, she helped raise millions of dollars for Democratic political candidates.[1]
• In July 1977, California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Reddy to the nine-member commission overseeing the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Her nomination was unanimously approved.[68][69] She served on the commission until 1980.[70]

Reddy and Wald with Betty Ford in 1976

Three of Reddy's forebears left Ireland and went to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. A distant cousin, New Zealand Governor-General Patsy Reddy, is descended from their mutual New Zealand forebear.[71]

Reddy was an enthusiastic genealogist; she researched her family's history extensively and founded the Tasmanian Genealogical Society.[72] "Genealogy is addictive; it begins as an interest, becomes a hobby, then a passion, and finally an obsession. Not only with each generation uncovered does the number of people to investigate double, but so too does the desire to understand the forces that shaped them," she wrote in her autobiography.[73] Reddy was once asked in an interview whether her name had any connection to the Reddy caste from India. Her response was: "I have done some research on my father's side; most of my research has been done on my mother's side. His father was born in Ireland, but his great-grandfather served with an Irish regiment stationed in India, so it is possible that I have Indian ancestry. But it has not yet been established."[72]

At age 20, Helen married Kenneth Claude Weate, an older musician and family friend whom she says she wed to defy her parents, who wished her to follow them into show business.[54] The couple separated not long after the birth of their daughter, Traci.[54]

In 1968, she married Jeff Wald, a native of the Bronx.[54] She converted to Judaism before marrying Wald,[74] with whom she had a son, Jordan,[75][lower-alpha 2] born in 1972.[76]

In a 1975 People interview, Reddy admitted that her relationship with then-husband and manager Wald was volatile, with the couple having "huge, healthy fights", but that she owed her success (she was then the world's biggest-selling female vocalist for two consecutive years) to Wald: "He runs it all. Naturally, when the moment of performance comes I have to deliver – but everything else is him. It's not my career; it's our career."[77]

By 2 January 1981, Reddy and Wald had separated and he had moved into a Beverly Hills treatment facility to overcome an eight-year cocaine addiction, a US$100,000-per-year habit (US$280,793 in 2021)[78].[76] Reddy subsequently filed for divorce, yet withdrew her petition the day after filing it, stating: "After 13 years of marriage, a separation of one month is too short to make a decision."[22] In 1982, after finding evidence of Wald's continued substance abuse, Reddy again separated from him and initiated divorce proceedings, which this time went through in January 1983. They agreed to shared custody of their son Jordan, but later became embroiled in a court battle after both filed for sole custody.[76] Her son later changed his surname to Sommers and became her assistant.[45]

In June 1983, she married Milton Ruth, a drummer in her band; the couple divorced in 1995.[54]

Reddy died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Calabasas, CA on 29 September 2020, at the age of 78.[79] She suffered from Addison's disease and dementia in her later years. No cause of death was given.[80][54]

The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show. They commenced in 1974. Reddy won one award from four nominations.

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters".[82]

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.

The Australian Women in Music Awards is an annual event that celebrates outstanding women in the Australian Music Industry who have made significant and lasting contributions in their chosen field. They commenced in 2018.

The Grammy Awards is an award presented by the Recording Academy to recognise achievements in the music industry. They commenced in 1959. Reddy has won one award from two nominations.[86]

The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognising people in entertainment, voted online by the general public and fans. The show has been held annually since 1975.