Helen Reddy: She Is Woman (Part 1)
Kristin Nilsen 0:00
And because of that song, suddenly we have Helen ready, and we all thought that she was Mary Magdalene. By we all you mean, yeah, I'm not the only one. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Kristin Nilsen 0:26
Happy will make you happy. Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation, who are the only generation to be fully trained in the metric system. It's coming. You guys,
Carolyn Cochrane 0:43
any day now, any day.
Michelle Newman 0:47
We believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear, like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition. And today
Carolyn Cochrane 0:59
we'll be shining the spotlight on a woman who didn't just sing the soundtrack of the 70s. She helped change the culture. We're talking about, the one, the only Helen Reddy, I'm
Kristin Nilsen 1:10
Carolyn, I'm Kristen, and I'm
Michelle Newman 1:12
Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists. I am
Speaker 1 1:17
the woman hear me roll in numbers too big to ignore.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:26
Before, empowerment anthems were a whole Spotify category. Before female forward was a marketing buzzword, there was Helen, and when she declared, I am woman, she didn't just top the charts. She handed an entire generation, an anthem that still resonates today. And I gotta say 100% to that, because this is a mainstay on any running playlist I have, and I actually sing it out loud when I am running. It's the only song that I will sing out loud. I might get quiet if there are other people around, otherwise I am doing, it's choreographed. I don't think you should.
Michelle Newman 2:03
I think if you Sing it loud when you're running, probably everybody would join in.
Kristin Nilsen 2:07
People know. People know what you're saying.
Carolyn Cochrane 2:09
The dogs will start to howl. It won't be pretty well throughout the early to mid 70s, Helen ready was an absolute chart Dominator. We're talking hit after hit after hit. Radio loved her. The Billboard Charts loved her, especially adult contemporary, meaning Carolyn, my inner character ego, loved her. And the audiences, especially women who were finding their voice in a rapidly changing world, really, really loved her. She wasn't just riding the wave of the women's movement, she was helping to give it a chorus, a chorus that you could sing in your car with the windows down, or on a running playlist, including my recent Chicago marathon playlist, it played like three different times on there, you guys, That's how much you know Mojo it gives me you
Unknown Speaker 3:03
I can do.
Carolyn Cochrane 3:09
So today we're diving into how this Australian born powerhouse went from struggling newcomer to Grammy winning, culture shifting superstar, and why her impact still echoes every time a woman claims her space and turns the volume all the way up before she became the voice of a generation. Helen Reddy was very much a show business kid from Australia. Okay, she was born in Melbourne in 1941 to vaudeville performers. So her parents were both vaudeville performers. Her dad was actually in the, I guess, Australian Army. I don't know if it has a different name, but he served in World War Two, and he was in the entertainment division. So I just love that. You know, there was a whole like, part of the armed forces, even the American ones, that they're not necessarily. I mean, maybe they're shooting guns, I don't know, but their main thing is to entertain the truth.
Kristin Nilsen 3:58
Yeah, the USO, remember, there was always a yes,
Carolyn Cochrane 4:01
other shoes, oh, but these were, like soldiers that were, you know, also the entertainment.
Michelle Newman 4:07
I love it. So he was, but that was great, because he was in vaudeville, yeah, like he was, do you guys, anytime I hear vaudeville? Did you guys ever do this? And this is, I feel like a 70s thing, I don't know, but you guys, I'm, I feel very strongly that you're going to go, I have no idea what you're talking about, but maybe somebody will, and hopefully you're watching this on YouTube. We used to do this thing, and anytime I hear vaudeville, I think of it. You must pay the rent
Kristin Nilsen 4:31
on Sesame Street or electric company
Michelle Newman 4:41
or something. Street. Oh, maybe it was, maybe still, I don't
Kristin Nilsen 4:47
know how I know it. I don't remember it on Sesame Street. I just know it, yes, and you'd make a bow tie or hair bow, but then mustache must
Michelle Newman 4:57
pay the rent. Was the dastardly villain with the most. Stash, pay the rent, and then should be we would do it like I can't pay the rent, like she's
Kristin Nilsen 5:04
like fainting. We put a bow in our hair.
Michelle Newman 5:07
We did too. Oh, maybe it was a bow. Maybe
Carolyn Cochrane 5:12
because her parents were vaudevillian stars. She literally grew up backstage, and by the time that most kids were learning their multiplication tables and how to tell the ABCs. She was learning stage cues. She actually made her first professional appearance at the age of four. You guys, she was out in front of an audience at four. And really, she said it was just kind of like, very natural. It was the family business. It wasn't like she felt really nervous, anyway, her her childhood and her teen years were pretty much like, you know, ours would be pop culture, songs, music, television, radio, that kind of thing. And she actually performed in her childhood in teen years, because that's what her parents said, This is what you're going to do. And she said, Okay, I guess I'm going to do it. But she actually didn't really want to, you guys. And so when she was in her late teens, she decided to be a little rebellious and said, I'm not going to do this whole working woman thing. I want to be a housewife and have babies. And so she actually got married very, very young to somebody that was their parents friend, which sounds kind of creepy. He's much older
Michelle Newman 6:17
than she was. Oh no, because Wasn't
Carolyn Cochrane 6:19
she like, 20? Yeah, she was like 19 and 20, like when she had a baby, she had her daughter, Tracy, and obviously the marriage was doomed, probably from the start. And so she became a single mother, very young, and found herself self, trying to work, but not really steadily, because even in Australia, probably the world. But you know, women were finding it hard to make the money make pave their own way. It's like, without a guy, you didn't really have a whole
Kristin Nilsen 6:47
lot, you weren't given a chance. Yeah,
Carolyn Cochrane 6:50
and so she wasn't going to let that stop her. She decided that, you know, she did have this talent, and she decided she was going to make it in a big way, and that way was going to have to come. So the turning point came in 1966 when Helen entered and won an Australian talent contest, and the prize was a ticket to New York City and the promise of a record deal. And it sounded like that you guys the classic show biz tale. She's gonna go to New York. Everything's gonna be great. We love it, except when she arrives in New York with Tracy, her daughter, on her hip, and she adds to the Office of Mercury Records. The deal, famously, it just fails to materialize. The awful, mean man says to her, like, oh, you misunderstood, yeah. So she misunderstood everything. No, she wasn't entitled to a record contract. It was just an audition for a record contract. And, oh, by the way, you already did that audition. It was your performance on the show, and we don't like you, so you don't have anything.
Kristin Nilsen 7:53
And she's in New York. She's in New
Carolyn Cochrane 7:54
York with her two year old. And, oh, this is very little. It is so tragic, right? But she's there, and she has the stream, and she's like, I'm not going to give it up. I'm going to pave my way. I'm going to figure something out. So she performs in like, you know, some of those kind of Smokey lounges, kind of doing covers of songs with background bands, and tries to make ends meet that way. She and Tracy are staying in a sleazy hotel, she repeatedly asked for a raise. She finds out the band members, all male are making more money than she is, and she's like the, you know, she's the top billing, right? And she's constantly denied. And basically what's held over her head is one, we shouldn't be paying you anything because you're not even from the United States, because she had to, you know, the whole visa thing, and they said you should just be happy with what you're getting. And actually, every once in a while, she'd have to go to Canada, and somehow there, who knows, all the hoops, yeah, oh, they have
Kristin Nilsen 8:52
different Yeah. They didn't have the requirements for visas, for work permits and whatnot. They were just like, hi, you seem nice. Here's somebody.
Carolyn Cochrane 8:58
So she would go there and somehow be able to get her work visa and then come back to work for a little while. Anyway, that's what she's doing for a while. And she actually, at the same time, makes a really dear friend, a woman named Lillian Roxanne. And I don't know if either of you ever ever heard of Lillian, but now I know who she is, and she's pretty damn cool. Okay, she is an Australian journalist, but she's working in New York now. She's a journalist in the music and kind of entertainment world, but really in the rock genre, is her thing, which was unheard of, to be a female journalist covering music, let alone rock. Needless to say, Lillian has some connections, and they befriend each other over their Australian connection and also over this awful, male dominated, misogynistic world that both of these women are trying to navigate. And so she provides her with a lot of introductions, and that really helps Helen kind of get her foot in the door a little bit in the music and the media world. So during this kind of early time when she's in New York, she's meeting people. She also meets a general. Named Jeff Wald, who would later become her husband and a key architect in
Kristin Nilsen 10:04
her career, and very shortly after, she gets her first hit, and this is the one that really put Helen reddy on the map, and that is, I don't know how to love him, from 1971
Kristin Nilsen 10:24
love. This is almost like her origin story. I knew this song when it came out. I heard it when it came out, but I became intimately related to it when my mom bought the Helen reddy's greatest hits album, I think a lot of these songs that we're going to talk about today came to us through that album, because raise your hand if your mom had that album, the Helen reddy's Greatest Hits which came out in 1975 so there were songs that we may have heard when we were little, little, little, and they became really entrenched in our brains. There it is. Michelle is holding it up right now. It's the navy blue, and there's this circle. It's Michelle's actual mom.
Michelle Newman 11:07
It's actual my mom's album.
Kristin Nilsen 11:09
And her face is in her face is in the circle. And I just she always looked naked to me, because it's like from the neck up, but I just imagined she was naked.
Michelle Newman 11:17
But you don't even see her. I see which as a child,
Kristin Nilsen 11:21
and beautiful, by the way. And also she had short hair, and I was very admiring of that, because she was very wash and go, like, not overly made up, not overly coiffed. She was like, here I am. World. Listen to my voice and that. And I really kind of admired that. So her first hit is 1970 ones. I don't know how to love him. And this is the song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. It's the song is performed by Mary Magdalene, not in real life, not the real Mary Magdalene, but in the show. It's performed by Mary Magdalene as she realizes that Jesus is really unlike any man that she's ever encountered. And on the album and in the stage production and in the movie, the role of Mary Magdalene is played by Yvonne Elliman. She is the one who first sings, I don't know how to love him, but Helen reddy recorded it and released it at the same time. You guys, this is at the same time. These two competing versions of the song, we're climbing the charts together. Usually a song will come out, and then years later somebody will cover it, right? Nope. This is happening at the same time. And in the end, crazy. It's crazy.
Carolyn Cochrane 12:34
They would have the rights, you know? So this is Capitol Records that she's recording this song with so that they would have the rights to it as well as I mean, maybe they have Yvonne Elliman too, I don't know. Well. And you
Kristin Nilsen 12:46
know what's weird is that so they have the album has come out. The Yvonne Elliman single has not been released as a single. Helen reddy releases the song as a single, and then Andrew ladeweber and Tim Rice are like, oh shit, we'd better release this as a single. So it's like they're chasing Helen Reddy, and Helen Reddy has the bigger hit. She is the one who gets she's the one who gets the number one hit, not Yvonne Elliman. And because of that, I also mistakenly thought that Helen reddy played Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar. She did not.
Michelle Newman 13:19
I didn't think that, but I thought I it is confusing. But this answers a lot of questions for me, because in my mind, it was almost like, what came first, the Carolyn, oh, the chicken or the egg type thing. But you're telling me it was the same time, exactly. So those answers a lot of questions, yes, and this makes me feel less ignorant.
Kristin Nilsen 13:36
Yeah, about it. It's very confusing. It's very confusing. It's so
Carolyn Cochrane 13:40
beautiful, Helen reddy didn't even want to really record that. I don't know how to love him. It was she
Kristin Nilsen 13:46
hated the song, as did a lot of people. Linda Ronstadt was also offered the song, and she's like, yuck. I don't want it.
Carolyn Cochrane 13:52
Well, I know that, and you might maybe we're gonna say this, but I know that initially, in a lot of the choices that Helen reddy made in her songs, she was not liking the kind of songs that women were performing, you know, on the radio, the topics they were all about, yeah, men, how do I get him to marry me or love me again? And, you know, forgive me or whatever? So she, I think, you know, probably a little bit of this song leaned into that, but this was the B side of whatever other songs she recorded with them, but they didn't like
Kristin Nilsen 14:22
that, that that song was a flop. That was a complete flop. So So, like I said, this is coming just a few short years after she's arrived in New York, like Carolyn said, with $200 in her pocket and a three year old on her hip, and she thought she had won a record contract, but no so very quickly she meets and marries very, very I'm talking three days she meets a man, and three days later she marries him, who works for, like you said, his name is Jeff Wald. He worked for a talent agency, and he bears a lot of the responsibility for the success of this song, but not really in the way that you'd think. And she has admitted. Admitted that she married him because she was having such trouble getting work permits to get actual jobs, and when he finally gets a job with Capitol Records in Los Angeles, they then moved to LA and he's managing these big names like deep purple and some other band I can't remember the Tiny Tim, thank you. Tiny Tim, oh my god. Got. So he's having a great deal of success with these big bands, and she gets frustrated that he's spending all his time promoting these big acts. And she's like, Hey, what about me? And she actually tells him, get to work, buddy. And she literally gave him an ultimatum. She's like, get me some opportunities, or I'm out. I'm out. Like, what good are you? What you are you to me? And he does, and in that moment, he becomes Mr. Helen, ready, and this would kind of come back to bite her in the ass later on, and we'll discuss that later. But he badgered people at Capitol Records so hard that eventually they said, Fine, she can cut one record. She can come in and cut one record on one condition. And that is Jeff Wald, husband of Helen Reddy, if you don't call us for one month like, leave us the fuck alone and we will let her record a song, leave us. So that song that she recorded was called, I believe in music, and it was a complete flop. But the flip side of that 45 was, I don't know how to love him. So Helen Reddy has said that she had extreme anxiety when recording that first single with Capitol Records, like everything is writing on this, I need to be a big star or I'm going to starve to death, and if I blow this, it's over. And she said you can hear that in her vocals, for, I believe, in music, which was written by Mac Davis, by the way, you can hear it, and it's kind of like it's and people, wasn't they. They weren't buying it. They weren't buying it. But that same anxiety made I don't know how to love him sound convincingly. Plaintiff, those are not my words. That is what other people have said, convincingly. Plaintiff, it is exactly what the song needed. And people loved it, and her hubs got on the phone again, this time calling radio DJs all over the nation, begging them to play it using his own money, his own telephone credit card, his calling card. Remember, is that we called it, yeah. What did we call those? My AT and T card, yeah, and he would take people out wine and dine them, anyone, please, please, listen to my wife and Helen reddy actually admits Yes, that was exactly what happened. And more. In fact, she said that a great number of the requests that came into radio stations for, I don't know how to love him, because, remember, it's the B side, and unless somebody tells you to flip it over, you're not going to flip it over. So they're like, yeah, they're calling in saying, Can you please flip over? I believe in music and play. I don't know how to love him. She said a great number of those phone calls, those requests all over the nation were made by her nephew, who was a teenage Australian actor who had a knack for voices,
Carolyn Cochrane 18:09
yeah, yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 18:11
calling radio stations all over the nation. That's fantastic. She said she had her friends call, and she even said, I may have made a caller to myself, like they are not giving up. They they know that this is a cutthroat business, and you might have to make things happen, right? And they did, yeah. So this made the Helen ready version of, I don't know how to love him, that much more successful than the track on the Jesus Christ Superstar album, sung by Ivana Elliman, because, like I said, they're on the charts at the exact same time, which is also 70s, so, but it's a beautiful song, even though it has gotten a shit ton of criticism for being overly sentimental. And like you said earlier, Carolyn, like, like, you know, on your knees begging for somebody to love you. And that was not exactly the kind of song that she wanted to sing. And yet she really pulled it off, and it became a huge hit, yeah? Well, I think you
Carolyn Cochrane 19:05
nailed it when you said that sound in her voice. What was it? Plaintively? It was
Kristin Nilsen 19:10
convincingly plaintive, yeah,
Carolyn Cochrane 19:13
and I think we'll see that theme play out in a lot of her songs that are, again, those storytelling, narrative songs that you can see in your head, and there's like a yearning, and you could just feel it through the airwaves. And I had read something that she had said, and this didn't, couldn't seem true to me, but she would know she lived it, that women, like female vocalists, were only allowed, like a certain amount of slots, so to speak, on a radio show. So let's say in an hour, you could only play one woman singing, and everything else had to be male dominated. And so it was that much more important for them to be making those calls, for that to be one of the few songs by females that are going to be played during this DJ. Shift or whatever. So while we might laugh and think, Oh, does that really matter, that they're calling in and please play that song, that's what made her career, was
Kristin Nilsen 20:09
that wasn't necessary, yeah, and they knew that they know all of these things and and because of that song, suddenly we have Helen ready. And we all thought that she was Mary Magdalene by we all you mean, yeah, I'm not the only one. I'm sure. I'm not the only one,
Carolyn Cochrane 20:26
no, I'm sure, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 20:40
He scares me so
Carolyn Cochrane 20:52
because of the success of I don't know how to love him in that single Capitol Records said, Hey, Helen, we're going to give you an album. We're going to sign you, and you're going to get a whole freaking album. And so this happens in 1972 and the title of that album is, I am woman. However, the first single that's released from that album is perhaps my favorite hell and ready song of all time. And I would gather, if you ask people, this would be right up there in their top one or two of Helen reddy songs. And this would be delta dawn.
Speaker 2 21:25
Delta dawn. What's that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
Carolyn Cochrane 21:35
You guys? I think this truly was probably the first pop, you know, Billboard song that I knew every single word to, and I knew it in real time. I know. I didn't just know it from the Greatest Hits later. I knew it because my parents were playing it in the car. As I've told you guys before, we had one of those new tone radio, you know, radios intercoms in our house, and so radio was playing like at breakfast all the time getting ready for school, I knew every single word. And so at this point, though, she's still kind of almost famous, like people kind of know the song, but she's not what she's going to become yet. But that was going to change, because this song actually climbed to number one on my favorite chart, the adult contemporary chart, and cracked the top 10 of the hot 100 so after all these years of hustling in the clubs and fighting for attention, all of a sudden radio could not get enough of her, enough of her warm, conversational vocal style.
Kristin Nilsen 22:34
And that's, I think, another so yes.
Carolyn Cochrane 22:37
It just Yeah, yeah. It just makes you kind of exhale, yeah. You might know that she was not the first artist to record Delta dawn. The song that was originally expected to kind of dominate the airwaves was delta Dawn being sung by Tanya Tucker, who released her recording in early 1972 the red
Carolyn Cochrane 23:06
flower. Tucker's version was a country Smash, but Helen, again, with that voice that she had, that could kind of it leaned toward pop and a different kind of interpretation, it became a mainstream hit, classic, early 70s fun, drama. And again, it's, it's a mysterious song, as we'll talk about some of her later songs. You know, there's a story behind it. And her voice, it just has that, again, plaintively, whatever you say,
Kristin Nilsen 23:32
convincingly, plaintiff,
Carolyn Cochrane 23:35
that just lends some credibility to that song and a little curiosity. And there's kind of lush orchestration in her version. So it really, I think, and I don't think anyone would argue, it helped kind of establish that storytelling style that she had, just kind of a little theatrical and very, very radio friendly.
Kristin Nilsen 23:55
And you know what I think is I'm now, I'm now in my head comparing Tanya Tucker and Helen ready. And I think one is just telling you what happened. This happened, and then this happened, and then this happened. And with Helen ready, there was an empathy in her voice that made you have empathy for the character. Yes, you cared about delta dawn. You felt bad.
Carolyn Cochrane 24:17
Yes, exactly.
Michelle Newman 24:19
Helen ready to me her her voice envelops, yeah, like her voice is like a warm hug, right? So she's got this depth and this just like longing, and she has so much more emotion than the Tanya Tucker, yeah, totally. I think
Speaker 2 24:35
she's 41 and her daddy still calls her baby all the folks around Brownsville say she's crazy because she walks downtown with her suitcase in her hand looking for a mysterious dark haired man. It's.
Carolyn Cochrane 25:00
So this rise that she's had, and now this kind of stardom that's coming with Delta Dawn really sets the stage for this even bigger cultural moment that's just right around the corner. So the
Michelle Newman 25:13
song that I would argue Helen Reddy is most known for, and that is the quintessential and Carolyn, as you alluded to earlier, timeless anthem for female empowerment is I am woman. Hear me wrong.
Speaker 1 25:27
I am woman. Hear me roll in numbers too big to ignore and I know too much to
Carolyn Cochrane 25:37
go back and pretend this
Michelle Newman 25:38
highly, highly singable song was written by Helen Reddy and her friend Ray Burton. He was an Australian, like guitarist, musician, and was one of two original songs written by her and Ray Burton that she submitted to Capitol Records for that first album. And she wrote it because she couldn't find any songs that addressed female empowerment, which was hugely important to her. So if you look at her first album, a lot of those are covers that she's singing, but I am woman is one that she wrote in a 2003 interview, she said I couldn't find any songs that said what I thought being a woman was about. I thought about all these strong women in my family who had gotten through the Depression and World Wars and drunken abuse of husbands, but there was nothing in music that reflected that. I certainly never thought of myself as a songwriter. But it came down to me having to do it, wow, which is such a reflection of, like, the song that's so like, yeah, circular, because that's what she's talking about.
Kristin Nilsen 26:40
I can't tell you at this moment in time, you guys, how often I will say to all the people in my life, I'll do it fine. Clearly, you think it's impossible, but I'm gonna get it done. I'm gonna do it. I am woman, yeah.
Michelle Newman 26:52
And like Carolyn, like you said earlier, she'd been an actress on stage for years, and that, interestingly, is also what fueled this anger for men who treated women like objects. And now learning about this whole first Mercury Records, or whatever thing she's pissed about that too, right? That was only several years before, and so again, I want to read you exactly what she said that I found in my research, because I won't do it justice if I summarize it. I mean, I am woman, but you know, she said women have always been objectified in showbiz. I'd be the opening act for a comic, and as I was leaving the stage, she'd say, Yeah, take your clothes off and wait for me in the dressing room. I'll be right there. That's how, that's how they talked. Yeah, just decided that's,
Carolyn Cochrane 27:40
that's, they have an evil mustache. Yeah,
Michelle Newman 27:43
I should have put my finger under my nose. I'll be right. He talks like the plumber it was. She said it was demeaning and humiliating for any woman, woman to have that happen publicly. And I think this is so fascinating. She credits the song as having supernatural inspiration. She said, I remember lying in bed one night and the words, I am strong, I am invincible. I am woman, kept going over and over in my head that part I considered to be divinely inspired. I had been chosen to get a message across, and you guys that message to get a message across is putting it mildly, because that's decades and decades of just an anthem
Kristin Nilsen 28:30
and a message. 50 years later, singing the song, yeah, yeah.
Michelle Newman 28:35
The next day, she said she wrote the lyrics and handed it to her friend, Ray Burton, Australian guitarist, and he put it to music. The song was originally heard during the closing credits to a 1972 film called stand up and be counted. Do you guys know that movie? Well, that's not surprising, because it opened and closed the same week in May of
Carolyn Cochrane 28:56
1972 What's it about? But do you know what it's about? I don't even know. Oh, I think it's about the women's. It's about the women's, right? I didn't watch, no, I'm pretty sure they had asked her if they could use it for the closing credits of this movie. That was kind of, it might have been a documentary even, of detailing, because you have to remember, in real time, these marches are happening on our streets, and her friend Lillian is very involved in the women's movement and National Organization for Women, and doing stuff in New York, which is another kind of inroads that Helen had, and another friend that was saying, yeah, it's shitty out there. You you need to write a song that the woman Lillian actually wrote the liner notes to several of Helen's earlier albums, and specifically wrote about the song in the liner, okay, kind of talked about it, so I do think that's maybe why it closed so quickly. Sadly, was because it was about women and
Kristin Nilsen 29:49
women Nazis, yeah, people wanting their own credit card.
Carolyn Cochrane 29:54
Yeah, and believe. Well, I'm gonna just interject really fast, because you said that I watched. A biopic. It's called I am woman, and it was film. It was filmed in 2019 and based on Helen's memoir. And there is a scene where she whips out her credit card, and she's so excited, she's like, I'm never gonna use it. She shows her husband, but she said, I have my own and has my own name on it. See, you guys,
Kristin Nilsen 30:21
that was significant. You could not get a credit card in your own name.
Carolyn Cochrane 30:24
Another part of the story, and almost what I want to tell our listeners is that we can't do Helen ready justice in a 60 minute PCPs episode. Like there are not things you could read, we'll include them in our show notes. Link to that biopic, to her memoir, to some of the stuff each of us is sharing, because it was much more than just, she's a good singer that makes us hum along like she really was a part of this movement
Kristin Nilsen 30:49
well, and I do, I do just have to, like, just to reiterate, so everybody feels this in their bones, this was in our lifetimes. So that means a woman could not get her own credit card in her own name without her husband signing for her when we were alive,
Michelle Newman 31:04
yeah, yeah, it was our moms. It
Kristin Nilsen 31:07
was our moms. Yeah, it was crazy.
Michelle Newman 31:09
Yeah, this, I think this Friday's Weekly Reader is just gonna be all hell and ready. Yeah, because let's do it. She's a national treasure. She's an icon. Well, so anyway, that played at the end of that movie, stand up and be counted. And people liked it, but, I mean, they loved it, but still, it had a really slow climb, like it entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 99 in June, and then when it peaked, it was only at number 97 two weeks later. Then it fell off the list entirely, then it reappeared at number 87 two months later, and it wasn't until December that it reached number one, and remember, it was played at the end of that movie way back in May. So it took a long time, but it did. It was the first number one single for Capitol Records since Ode to Billy Joe by Bobby Jones, five years earlier. Wow.
Kristin Nilsen 31:54
Five years they have without a number one. She gives it to them.
Michelle Newman 31:57
Yeah. And it was the first number one hit on the Billboard chart by an Australian born artist and the first Australian written song to win a Grammy Award. And this is so great, and her acceptance speech at the Grammys for Best Female Performance, she thanked God, because she makes everything possible.
Carolyn Cochrane 32:18
Boom, yes, you hadn't already listened to that song. You were gonna go the next day and listen to it. You know, we're gonna know what it was in that biopic, it showed that she would perform the song often in her shows that as she traveled the country and then those cities would become like women would start calling those radio stations the next day saying, I want to hear this song. So I almost think that's part of the slow climb that you just talked about, Michelle, is that, as she toured that year, because it was very important for her, she said to perform that song, because the women you know, who were going to relate to it and request it and buy it were the ones sitting next to their husbands at the, you know, concert at the lounge or whatever. And so I do think that's why you slowly saw it, you know, rise the charts, because more she was singing it, more to more groups of people and well,
Kristin Nilsen 33:12
and then you get to, you get to give your spin on it. You get to give a little information about it, right? Why you're singing it, you personalize it, instead of just randomly hearing it on the radio. Now you're personally connected, and it's coupled with
Carolyn Cochrane 33:24
what's happening. I mean, this was a volatile time in our country's history, which I would I wish I knew more about. Honestly, you know, I kind of remember like seeing, you know, video footage of women marching with the now signs or whatever, but not realizing one like you said, Kristen, this is our lifetime, and my mom, it's like my mom was into any of this. So it wasn't like I was seeing this stuff personally, but it was, it was huge. And I can only imagine if social media had been around then. But this song, coupled with all the things that were happening in our country, and kind of, it kind of went together. I don't know that the song would there was a
Kristin Nilsen 34:02
movement, there was a movement of foot, and they fed each other exactly. There you go.
Michelle Newman 34:07
Yes, well, I want to share two really feel good little stories with you before we move on to her next song. And this one, I just think is, is really cool. She said she wrote the song, but to her, the song's message reached beyond feminism. It's not just for women. She said it's a general empowerment song about feeling good about yourself, believing in yourself. When my former brother in law, a doctor, was going to medical school, he played it every morning just to get him going. I believe
Carolyn Cochrane 34:43
it's that kind of song
Michelle Newman 34:45
it is. Yeah, I know. And then I love this, the National Organization for woman. Founder, Betty Friedan, said that in a night during the 1973 now annual convention, they closed with the playing of I am woman. I. Suddenly, she said, women got out of their seats and started dancing around the hotel ballroom and joining hands in a circle that got larger and larger until maybe 1000 of us were dancing and singing, I am strong, strong. I am invincible. I am one. It was a spontaneous, beautiful expression of the exhilaration we all felt in those years. Women really moving as women. And I feel like even today that would happen. Helen reddy did say I had no idea this was in 2002 she said I had no idea what the song was destined to become. If I'd known, I would have been far too intimidated to have written it. And so thank goodness she didn't know, yeah, but I just hope that she knew. And I know she knew. I mean, she passed away in 2020 but you know, by the year 2000 I mean, she knew the impact, yeah, she did she had on just millions of women and little girls and, you know, men, obviously her brother.
Unknown Speaker 36:20
I can do anything. I am strong. I am invincible.
Michelle Newman 36:33
Okay, so now we're gonna move on to 1973 to leave me alone. Parentheses, ruby red dress in parentheses,
Michelle Newman 36:54
it's actually a cover. It was originally recorded by Linda Yeah, someone named Linda Laurie, who is a songwriter, an Australian songwriter, in the summer of 1973 and then Helen reddy recorded it for her album called long, hard climb, that was released in August. Then she released it as a single that October of 73 and then it became a million selling, you know, Gold Certified how all her songs, you know, basically give them all the awards type of thing. So the song is, is about big old ruby red dress who walks around town. Lots of talk of walking around
Carolyn Cochrane 37:31
town and avoiding people.
Michelle Newman 37:34
She's avoiding people. And we know this to be true. Why leave me alone? Won't you leave me alone. I mean, she is telling everybody in all capitals, leave me alone. And she's carrying the weight of a past. We don't know, but the lyrics suggest it's a sad and scandalous event, maybe caused, not, maybe definitely caused by some farm boy up from Tennessee who taught it all to Ruby. Then just let
Kristin Nilsen 38:02
her be. Oh, we know what
Michelle Newman 38:05
that means. Yes, we do. And her father tried to hide it.
Kristin Nilsen 38:09
Oh, God. Ruby
Michelle Newman 38:11
Red Dress broke down like a fool. They said, she says, broke down like a fool. Now, this song was actually released as a follow up single to Delta Dawn, but Helen reddy thought that was a mistake, because the songs themes were too familiar. Think about it's the same. Songs concern a southern woman Yes, alliteratively named Yes, and their reason has been undermined by an ill fated tryst, and they're making me crazy.
Kristin Nilsen 38:42
One is crazy. Yes, I know
Michelle Newman 38:46
she also, she also found the songs chorus with the repetition of leave me alone, monotonous. Do you know how many times she says it in the song?
Carolyn Cochrane 38:55
I'm gonna say 2243
Michelle Newman 38:59
43 she says it 43 times on the song, but alas, she was wrong, and Capitol Records was right, because Leave me alone, reached all kinds, like I said, all kinds of important milestones, and hit All kinds of charts and got all the awards. Leave
Michelle Newman 39:20
Oh, it's not my favorite. I'm gonna be honest, it's not my favorite. Helen ready song at all. Oh, I love it
Carolyn Cochrane 39:31
was not my favorite, but it's just again. I mean, Helen ready, her whatever discography could be a novel in my head, like this is chapter two. Delta Dawn was chapter one. Now this is chapter two, and we'll go on to have a three and four as we chat later. But it's yeah, it's always the
Kristin Nilsen 39:48
daddy who takes care of the secret pregnancy. In every song. There's no mother involved. It's just daddy. Daddy is so mad, and Daddy's got a shotgun and daddy's gonna take care of it. It like, what's up with you, daddy? Yeah, just something listeners, just something to ponder, discuss. Think about it. Why is it the daddy who's so in charge of the of the scandalous pregnancy?
Carolyn Cochrane 40:11
Well, we're going to change themes a little bit here and come up with one of my other favorite songs. This is in 1974 and Helen releases this toe tapping wonderful song called keep on singing.
Carolyn Cochrane 40:34
Daddy plays a little part in this. So this is chapter three of my novel written by Helen Reddy, and one of my favorite memories was recently, and we've talked about this a little bit, but having this come on a playlist while I was driving with Kristen on the Pacific Coast Highway in where were we again? Kristin, bodega, bayga Bay. And it was one of those songs again that you forgot you knew all of the words too. And it's not when you would think, Oh, I'm gonna pull this up on a playlist of my own. It was like, I'd forgotten about keep on singing. But then I didn't stop singing. I was like, and Kristen and I were just belting it out. And anyway, I love it. And we have progressed in Helen's career, because now she's like, full on 70s pop queen. So this song climbs to number 15 on the Billboard, hot 100 and becomes another strong Adult Contemporary favorite. And radio programmers loved it because she delivered exactly what they were realizing that the format thrived on, which was emotional clarity, these big melodic hooks. And as we've said earlier, her warm and reassuring vocal tone, yeah, again, it told a story. It was more than just this background thing, like you got to follow people in your head and what's what's going to happen to our friend who wants to be a singer, and her dad says, Just keep on singing. Don't give up. It's gonna be okay. You're gonna be a star one day. You're gonna make a lot of people happy when they come to hear you play. So interestingly, the song was written by a Duo, Danny Jansen and Bobby Hart, who actually were the hit makers behind the monkeys. They wrote a lot of the monkey songs, yes. So it's kind of got is, and now when you listen to it, Kristen, you can probably hear it's got that more Boppy 70s,
Kristin Nilsen 42:21
the monkey bounce. The monkey bounces right.
Carolyn Cochrane 42:23
And so I think that's another reason why we love it. It's Boppy. It is very, totally Boppy. And it's a message, again, that Helen has given us in her other songs of perseverance, of staying true to your voice, and kind of keeping on like I'm going to make this dream come true. It's going to happen. And really kind of mirrored a lot of what she had experienced too, in terms of, I'm not going to give up, we're going to keep going. And it, it was kind of a fan friendly anthem for her. It was kind of mirroring, it was the self mythology of what her career was becoming, because this becomes the busiest stretch of her career.
Kristin Nilsen 42:57
Yeah, 1974 is on fire for Helen
Carolyn Cochrane 43:01
ridden, yes, between 72 and 75 are her years.
Carolyn Cochrane 43:15
Interestingly, you guys, besides her chart topping success, she was also a success on the little screen, because she was a summer replacement for a variety show. She took over for the Flip Wilson show. And so she has, she did, she did. So she had her own variety show, which is another place that we would have seen her as children, because that would be sure of something our parents were tuning into
Michelle Newman 43:41
around this time. She also was a guest more than once on the Carolyn Burnett Show. And you guys, I'm putting this one clip, this, this YouTube video, and the Weekly Reader this week, like I said, it's gonna be a Helen ready palooza. And so just grab a snack when you get your Weekly Reader on Friday. And for those of you don't know, it, comes in, comes in your email, comes in that email on your computer, and oh gosh, I swear, if you ever just need a bomb, watch The Carol Burnett Show. It is so stinking funny and so simple. So Helen Reddy, obviously, she sing on the show, but her and Carolyn Burnett are these two, and they're just, they dress them to just be dorky. In fact, Helen Reddy has her hair parted in the middle and then like two little clips on each side, like her bangs are clipped back, and they're going in the singles bar to pick up men. They're all just so dorky and so socially awkward, you guys. It's just so funny. There are mannerisms, and I loved it so much yesterday when I watched it, when I discovered it. Carol Burnett says, We are strong. We are invincible. I'm gonna put it in the Weekly Reader. You don't even have to
Kristin Nilsen 44:57
search for it. It's coming to you.
Speaker 3 44:59
Well, I guess. We better go. Look, I know what. We'll walk real slow and stop at the door, and that'll give him a chance to meet us. Okay, okay, but remember, we stick together, right? We are strong. We are invincible. You're so
Carolyn Cochrane 45:16
keep on talking. Don't stop talking. We've got lots more to say, but we've run out of time today, so tune in next Monday. That's right, everybody. We've got lots more to talk about. We love Helen ready, and we wanted to make sure we give her all the time that she deserves. So tune in next week for part two of Helen Reddy. She is woman, the
Kristin Nilsen 45:40
information, opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belongs solely to Carolyn the crushologist and hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there is always a first time the PCPs is written, produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional wjm studios and our beloved Mary Richards Nanu. Nanu, keep on trucking and May the Force Be With You. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai