Helen Reddy
When Linda Ronstadt turned down a suggestion from Capitol Records
that she record I Don't Know How To Love Him from Jesus
Christ Superstar, label vice-president Artie Mogull knew just
what to do. He called Helen Reddy's husband Jeff Ward and told him
"That song you wanted for Helen . . . we got it".
Ironically, Helen wasn't too thrilled about the song either,
but the way things were she would have recorded anything. It
turned out to be a great hit and Capitol decided to do an album.
That was the start of the Helen Reddy success story.
Helen was born in Melbourne in 1942 to Australian entertainers
Max Reddy and Stella Lamond (her sister is singer Toni Lamond). At
15, she went on the road with her parents, playing one-night
stands.
She progressed to band singing, local TV shows and the cutting
of a few discs - all the while her main aim was to get to the
United States and the scope it would provide. Her dreams came true
when, in 1965 - from a group of 1,358 hopefuls - Helen won a
talent contest on the Nine Network's Bandstand
show in which the prize was a trip to New York and a recording
contract.
Unfortunately, her hopes from the win were to be badly dashed.
Firstly, it took four months of calling the TV station every day
before her New York ticket arrived. Arriving in the big apple,
Helen was taken to lunch from the record company and told politely
but firmly that there would be no recording session since they had
already heard a tape of her from Australia. (Helen later found out
there had been no tape).
 The
music scene in New York at that time did not show great promise
for the homesick Australian, who survived on odd jobs and by
singing in strip joints, spaghetti houses and veterans' hospitals.
After the shows, Helen would go to her hotel room and put her
three-year old daughter, Traci (from a failed marriage) to bed,
and would often then just sit there until morning wondering if she
would ever make it.
On the night before her 25th birthday, down to her last $12,
Helen decided she would use her return ticket to Australia on the
next available flight. The next day her friends told her they had
organised a birthday party for her with people paying $5 a head -
with all the money going to her.
In true fairy tale style, a gate crasher at the party turned
out to be the aforementioned Jeff Ward, who worked at the powerful
William Morris Agency. He told Helen "I am going to make you
a star within five years". Helen met Jeff on a Tuesday. He
proposed to her the following Friday and they were soon married.
The newlyweds moved firstly to Chicago and then to Los Angeles,
but despite Jeff's contacts and mercurial approach, Helen was
still finding her career stalled and going nowhere fast.
Her biggest hit came in 1973 with I Am Woman. Not only
did the song become her signature tune, it also became a
well-timed anthem for the Women's
Liberation movement.
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