Helen Reddy

Helen Maxine Reddy, popularly known as Helen Reddy was an Australian-American singer, songwriter, actress, tv host, activist, and motivational speaker. She is often referred to as the “Queen of ’70s Pop” and is famous for her single, “I Am Woman”. She was born into a show-business family and had begun her career as an entertainer at the age of four. She eventually moved to the United States to pursue her music career. Her musical style is best described as a light amalgam of rhythm and blues, easy rock, and jazz. She made her debut with the singles “One Way Ticket” and “I Believe in Music” in 1968 and 1970. The #1 Grammy-winning “I Am Woman” became not only the anthem of the feminist movement during the radical 1970s but also the signature song for its lovely, crop-haired, reddish-haired composer and singer Helen Reddy. Her hits are “Angie Baby” and “No Way to Treat a Lady”. In the United States, she had fifteen singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. In her career, she released 18 studio albums, 1 live album, and 15 compilation albums. In the year 1974, at the inaugural American Music Awards, she won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist.

She died at the age of 78 on 29 September 2020 in Los Angeles, California.

What is Helen Reddy’s claim to fame?

“I Am Woman,” her no. 1 hit, made her popular.

She is known as the “Queen of ’70s Pop.”

Helen Reddy was born in the United Kingdom.

Helen Reddy was born on October 25, 1941, in New York City. Helen Maxine Reddy is her given name. Her hometown is Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She is an Australian citizen. Her race is white and her ethnicity is mixed. Her ancestors are Irish, Indian, Scottish, and English. Judaism is her faith. Scorpio is her zodiac sign. She was born into a well-known family in the film industry. Stella Lamond (mother) and Maxwell David “Max” Reddy (father) are her parents (father). Her mother was a well-known actress who appeared on the television shows Homicide (1964), Country Town (1971), and Bellbird (1967), while her father worked as a writer, producer, and actor. She has brothers as well. Toni Lamond, her half-sister, and Tony Sheldon, her nephew, are both actors and musicians. Thomas Lamond, her Scottish great grandfather, was a former mayor of Waterloo, New South Wales, and was patronized by Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead.

In terms of her schooling, she attended Tintern Grammar School. She arrived in New York in 1966 and chose to stay with her 3-year-old daughter Traci in order to pursue a singing career. She enrolled part-time at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1969 to study parapsychology and philosophy.

Helen Reddy’s Biography

Reddy began working on the Australian vaudeville circuit with her parents when she was four years old.

At the age of 12, she moved in with her paternal aunt, Helen Reddy. Her parents had been on the road all over the country.

Kenneth Claude Weate, whom she married at a young age, was her first husband. Weate was a family acquaintance and an old guitarist. They had a daughter together. They split and divorced.

She began supporting herself and her daughter, Traci, as a single mother.

At the age of 17, she had a kidney removed.

She kept working, singing on the radio and on television.

She won a talent contest on Bandstand, an Australian pop music television program. She won a trip to New York City to record a single for Mercury Records as a reward.

In 1966, she and her daughter settled in New York, New York.

However, she was unable to secure a deal with the record label.

She chose to stay in the United States despite having just a hundred dollars in her wallet to pursue a singing career.

She struggled to find singing jobs due to work permit problems. She flew to Canada without receiving a work permit.

Martin St. James, a fellow Australian and entertainer, threw a party for Reddy and also paid her rent. At the group, she met Jeff Wald, her future manager and husband. Three days after the conference, they married.

They struggled to make ends meet. To support them, Reddy did a number of jobs.

Her husband Wald got a job as a talent coordinator at Mister Kelly’s in Chicago, and the family moved there.

In 1968, Reddy signed a recording contract with Fontana Records after performing in local lounges.

Fontana released her first single, “One Way Ticket.” It did not chart in the United States, but it reached No. 83 in Australia.

In the same year, the family moved to Los Angeles. Capitol Records employed her husband, Wald. After joining the record label, Wald found success.

Helen was given permission to cut one single by Capitol Records. She performed Mac Davis’ ‘I Believe in Music’ alongside ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’ from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar.

Her single “I Am Woman,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1972, catapulted her to fame.
“I Am Woman” was recorded and released in May 1972, but it only made a small impact on the charts at the time.

Her hit single “I Am Woman” won her a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Following her initial success, she had more than a dozen Top 40 hits in the United States, including two more No. 1 hits, including Kenny Rankin’s “Peaceful” (No. 12), Alex Harvey’s country ballad “Delta Dawn” (No. 1), Linda Laurie’s “Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)” (No. 3), Austin Roberts’ “Keep on Singing” (No. 15), and Paul Williams’ “You

In 1976, she recorded “The Fool on the Hill,” a Beatles hit, for the musical documentary All This and World War II.
“Delta Dawn” in 1973 and “I Can’t Hear You No More” in 1976 were among her successful hits during the three-year period.

With a No. 18 high, her 1977 remake of Cilla Black’s 1964 hit “You’re My World” signaled a return. Its parent album, “Ear Candy,” her tenth, will go on to become her first full-length release since 1972’s “Helen Reddy,” to not achieve at least Gold status.

She also performed on Gene Simmons’ solo album on the song “True Confessions” as a backup singer.

Five of her eight singles, including “Candle on the Water” from the 1977 Disney film Pete’s Dragon, made the Easy Listening Top 50. (which starred Reddy).

With “Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler,” the B-side to “The Happy Girls,” she reached No. 98 on the country chart.
Following Ear Candy, her next four Capitol albums failed to chart, and she expressed disappointment “I signed a ten-year contract with Capitol…

And after a long time with an organization, you can be taken for granted. I haven’t felt like I’ve had any support from them in the last three years “in the year 1981

“Play Me Out,” her first album for MCA Records, was released in May 1981.

Her remake of Becky Hobbs’ 1979 country hit “I Can’t Say Goodbye to You” returned her to the Billboard Hot 100 for the final time at No. 88, as well as to the UK and Ireland charts (her sole previous hit in both was “Angie Baby”).

MCA released one more Reddy album, “Imagination,” in 1983, which proved to be her final release as a career recording artist. “Imagination” was released shortly after Reddy’s divorce from Wald, whose alleged subsequent interference in her career Reddy would blame for her career decline in the mid-1980s: “Several of my performing contracts were canceled, and one promoter tol

She then released “Feel So Young” in 1990 on her own label.

Reddy’s album “Center Stage,” a collection of show tunes recorded for Varese Sarabande, was released in 1997.

Her most recent album, “The Best Christmas Ever,” was released in 2000.

In April 2015, she released a cover of the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” on the Purple Pyramid label for the album Keep Calm and Salute the Beatles.

She has also starred in TV shows such as The Bobby Darin Show, The Carol Burnett Show, and The Muppet Show, in addition to her singing career.

She also directed the ‘The Flip Wilson Show’ summer replacement series in 1973.

She joined the NBC late-night variety show “The Midnight Special” as a semi-regular host in 1973, a role she held until 1975.

She then went on to star in “Pete’s Dragon,” in which she performed the Oscar-nominated song “Candle on the Water.”

She also played a nun in the film Airport 1975, singing her own song “Best Friend.”

She was one of several musical stars featuring in the all-star chorale in the 1978 film “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” and she has since appeared in the films “Disorderlies” (1987) and “The Perfect Host” (1988). (2010).

She has appeared in episodes of The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, The Jeffersons (as herself), Diagnosis: Murder, and BeastMaster as a guest star on television.

In 2007, she made a guest appearance as herself in the Family Guy television show’s Star Wars spoof “Blue Harvest.”
Not only that, but she also starred alongside Red Five (Chris Griffin), Red Buttons, Redd Foxx, Big Red, Red

October, Simply Red, and others as a’red’-themed (‘Red’-dy) member of the Red Squadron.

She mainly starred in musicals such as Anything Goes, Call Me Madam, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Blood Brothers, which she performed on both Broadway and the West End.

She then performed in four performances of “Shirley Valentine,” a one-woman show.

She declared her retirement from music in 2002, performing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra for the final time.

As of April 2008, she was said to be “simply and frugally surviving off album royalties, pension funds, and social security…[renting] a 13th-floor apartment with a 180-degree view of Sydney Harbour.”

She said in the year 2008, “It will not take place. I’ve progressed, “and clarified that her voice had deepened to a lower key and that she wasn’t sure whether she’d be able to sing any of her hits anymore. She also confirmed that she was no longer interested in acting. “I have a diverse range of interests,” she explained. “Singing ‘Leave Me Alone’ 43 times per song has long since lost its allure.”

She was later interviewed by Australian television in 2011 and said that she was very pleased to be retiring from the entertainment industry.

On July 12, 2012, she performed at Croce’s Jazz Bar in San Diego and at St. Genevieve High School in Panorama City, a Los Angeles neighborhood, for a benefit concert for the arts. Reddy also performed a duet with senior choir member Rosalind Smith called “You’re Just in Love.”

She also performed “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,” among her best-known songs.

Helen Reddy Albums

I Don’t Know How to Love Him (1971)

Helen Reddy (1971)

I Am Woman (1972)

Long Hard Climb (1973)

Love Song for Jeffrey (1974)

Free and Easy (1974)

No Way to Treat a Lady (1975)

Music, Music (1976)

Ear Candy (1977)

We’ll Sing in the Sunshine (1978)

Reddy (1979)

Take What You Find (1980)

Play Me Out (1981)

Imagination (1983)

Feel So Young (1990)

Center Stage (1998)

The Best Christmas Ever (2000)

Greatest & Latest (2002)

Awards and Achievements of Helen Reddy

“I Am Woman” earned a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

For her part in Airport 1975, Reddy was nominated for a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer-Female.

She also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in the music industry, located at 1750 Vine Street on 23rd July 1974.

In the year 1974, at the inaugural American Music Awards, she won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist.

Helen Reddy Personal Life

Helen Reddy was three times in her life. She was first married to Kenneth Claude Weate. She was only 20 years old when she married Weate. Weate was an older musician and family friend. They had a daughter named Traci. They divorced after the birth of their daughter. She then married Jeff Wald in 1968. He was a secretary at the William Morris Agency at the time. They married three days after meeting for the first time. She converted to Judaism before marrying Wald. She had a son, Jordan, born in 1972. The couple separated in January 1981. Wald had moved into a treatment facility to overcome an eight-year cocaine addiction. The couple reconciled but Wald’s continued substance abuse led to their eventual divorce. They agreed to shared custody of their son Jordan. Reddy got married for the third time in 1983. She married Milton Ruth, a drummer in her band. They did not have children. They got divorced in 1995.

She suffered from dementia in her later years.

Helen Reddy Height

Very beautiful with blonde hair color, Helen Reddy stood tall at the height of 1.6 m. She has got a pair of pretty blue eye colors. Her body build is slim. Her sexual orientation was straight.

Helen Reddy Net Worth

Helen Reddy was one of the popular singers often referred to as the “Queen of ’70s Pop”. She has released 15 studio albums in her career and sold over 80 million albums worldwide. Her income comes from record sales, contracts, concerts, tours, and acting. As an actress, she has appeared in several movies, tv shows, and theater productions. Her net worth was estimated at $3 Million.