Background
Since Helen Reddy's acrimonious divorce from American manager Jeffrey Wald in 1983 due to a custody battle with their son, she became her own manager and booking agent [2] by forming her eponymous production company and record label, Helen Reddy Inc., at Santa Monica, California, to exert artistic and legal controls and "own the masters to these songs". [3] The album Feel So Young was conceived as "a record of how they sounded now", in Reddy's words, which contains new recordings of previous hits. The album was recorded at Jackson Browne's Groove Masters Studio, Santa Monica, California in August 1990. [4]
At the time of the initial release, the album was distributed primarily in the United States, Japan and England by Helen Reddy Records, Alfa Records [5] and Pickwick Records, [6] respectively, on CD and cassette tapes. In the United States, the album was released as a mail order in an "environmentally sensitive packaging", as stated in one of her advertisements. [7]
Reissue history
| Title | Country | Date | Label | Format | Catalogue number |
|---|
| Feel So Young: The Best of Helen Reddy | United Kingdom | 8 March 2002 [4] | Prestige Elite Records | CD | CDSGP 0124 |
| Greatest and Latest | United States | 5 November 2002 [8] | Goldenlane Records/Cleopatra Records | CD | 1261 |
| The Best of Helen Reddy | Australia | 12 November 2002 [9] | Masters / Intercontinental Records | CD | 1267 |
| Angie Baby | United Kingdom | 14 November 2002 [10] | Delta Music | CD | CD 4153 |
| The Collection | Australia | 20 December 2002 [11] | Performax | CD | MAX081 [12] |
| I Am A Woman | United Kingdom and Germany | 9 September 2003 [13] | Brilliant | CD | BT 33088 |
| Classics | United States and Canada | 20 September 2003 [14] | Madacy Records | CD | 4483 |
| Helen Reddy | The Netherlands | 6 December 2004 [15] | United Audio Entertainment | CD | 615 |
| Greatest Hits | United States | 6 September 2005 [16] | Delta Distribution/Laserlight | CD | 32612 |
| Helen Reddy | United States | 6 December 2007 [1] | KRB | CD | KRB8165-2 |
Helen Maxine Reddy was an Australian-American singer, songwriter, author, actress, and activist. Born in Melbourne, Victoria, to a show-business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on radio and television and won a talent contest on the television program Bandstand in 1966; her prize was a ticket to New York City and a record audition, which was unsuccessful. She pursued her international singing career by moving to Chicago, and subsequently, Los Angeles, where she made her debut singles "One Way Ticket" and "I Believe in Music" in 1968 and 1970, respectively. The B-side of the latter single, "I Don't Know How to Love Him", reached number eight on the pop chart of the Canadian magazine RPM. She was signed to Capitol Records a year later.
Alan Earle O'Day was an American singer-songwriter, best known for writing and singing "Undercover Angel," a million-selling Gold-certified American No. 1 hit in 1977. He also wrote songs for several other notable performers, such as 1974's Helen Reddy No. 1 hit "Angie Baby" and the Righteous Brothers' No. 3 Gold hit "Rock and Roll Heaven". In the 1980s he moved from pop music to television, co-writing over 100 songs for the Saturday morning Muppet Babies series, and in the 1990s he wrote and performed music on the National Geographic series Really Wild Animals.
"Baby I Love U!" is a song recorded by American singer Jennifer Lopez for her third studio album, This Is Me... Then (2002). It was written by Lopez, Cory Rooney, Dan Shea and John Barry and produced by Rooney and Shea. The song contains an interpolation of the theme for the film Midnight Cowboy (1969).
"I Am Woman" is a song written by Australian musicians Helen Reddy and Ray Burton. Performed by Reddy, the first recording of "I Am Woman" appeared on her debut album I Don't Know How to Love Him, released in May 1971, and was heard during the closing credits for the 1972 film Stand Up and Be Counted. A new recording of the song was released as a single in May 1972 and became a number-one hit later that year, eventually selling over one million copies. The song came near the apex of the counterculture era and, by celebrating female empowerment, became an enduring anthem for the women’s liberation movement. Following Reddy's death in September 2020, the song peaked at number 2 on the Australian digital sales chart.
"Angie Baby" is a song that was written by American singer-songwriter Alan O'Day, and became a hit for Australian singer Helen Reddy. The song reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart at the end of December 1974 and became one of Reddy's biggest-selling singles. The song also topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart, Reddy's fifth #1 on this chart.
Richard Buchanan Kerr is an English composer, who co-wrote "Mandy", "Looks Like We Made It" and "Somewhere in the Night" and "I'll Never Love This Way Again", for Dionne Warwick.
Helen Reddy, often referred to as the "Queen of 70s Pop", recorded 18 studio albums, seven of which have achieved sales of 500,000 units in the US for which they were awarded Gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. One of those seven, I Am Woman, eventually went Platinum by reaching sales of one million copies, and her first compilation album, Helen Reddy's Greatest Hits, was awarded Double Platinum status in 1992 for hitting the two million sales mark. The respective US and Canadian album charts in Billboard and RPM magazine each had appearances by 10 of these LPs during the 1970s.
I Am Woman is the third studio album by Australian–American pop singer Helen Reddy, released on November 13, 1972, by Capitol Records. The album included her second recording of the song that gave the album its name, which was also the version that spent a week at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The album debuted on Billboard's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated December 9, 1972, and reached number 14 during its 62 weeks there, and in Canada's RPM magazine it peaked at number seven. On March 7, 1973, the Recording Industry Association of America awarded the album with Gold certification for sales of 500,000 copies in the United States, and Platinum certification for sales of one million copies came on December 5, 1991. On July 22, 2003, it was released for the first time on compact disc as one of two albums on one CD, the other album being her 1973 release Long Hard Climb.
Free and Easy is the sixth studio album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in the fall of 1974 by Capitol Records. The album included rare forays into rock and vaudeville ("Showbiz"). The album debuted on Billboard's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated November 2, 1974, and reached number eight during its 28 weeks there. The following month, on December 18, the Recording Industry Association of America awarded the album with Gold certification for sales of 500,000 copies in the United States. In the UK it peaked at number 17, and in Canada's RPM magazine it got as high as number nine on its list of the top LPs in the issue dated January 11, 1975. On January 27, 2004, it was released for the first time on compact disc as one of two albums on one CD, the other album being her other 1974 release, Love Song for Jeffrey.
Helen Reddy's Greatest Hits is a compilation album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy. It was released in 1975 by Capitol Records.
Music, Music is the eighth studio album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in the summer of 1976 by Capitol Records and later described by J. Scott McClintock for AllMusic: "There are breezy, Bacharach-ian excursions, bluesy numbers, light country ('Mama'), jazzy ballads, and even a little Philly soul. On August 2 of that year the Recording Industry Association of America awarded the album with Gold certification for sales of 500,000 copies in the United States. It debuted on Billboard's Top LP's & Tapes chart that same month, in the issue dated August 14, and got as high as number 16 during its 13 weeks there, and in Canada's RPM magazine it peaked at number 14. The third album recorded by Reddy with producer Joe Wissert, Music, Music was cited in 1977 by Reddy as a personal favorite from among her albums. On August 23, 2005, Music, Music was released for the first time on compact disc as one of two Helen Reddy albums on one CD, the other album being her 1975 studio release, No Way to Treat a Lady.
Ear Candy is the ninth studio album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy, released on April 25, 1977 by Capitol Records. The album included a modern take on the doo-wop genre, a Cajun number that gave the Melbourne native her first and only appearance on Billboard magazine's Country chart, and a dark self-parody on which Reddy proclaims: "I don't take no shit from nobody". Unprecedented for a Helen Reddy album, half of the songs recorded for Ear Candy were co-written by Reddy herself, including the second single: "The Happy Girls", Reddy's first self-penned A-side single since "I am Woman": however it was the first single: a remake of the 1964 Cilla Black hit "You're My World", which would afford Reddy a final Top 40 hit.
Live in London is the first live album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in 1978 by Capitol Records and, as with her previous release, did not reach Billboard magazine's Top LP's & Tapes chart. On June 25, 2002, the album was released for the first time on compact disc.
Take What You Find is the twelfth studio album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in 1980 by Capitol Records. It was her last album while under contract with the aforementioned record label before signing with MCA Records. Like the previous three -- We'll Sing in the Sunshine, Live In London, and Reddy—it failed to sell enough copies to reach Billboard magazine's list of the 200 Top LP's & Tapes of the week in the US but also became her first studio LP that didn't have a single appearing on either the Billboard Hot 100 or the magazine's Easy Listening chart.
Imagination is the fourteenth studio album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in 1983 by MCA Records. As with the first of the two, 1981's Play Me Out, it did not reach Billboard magazine's Top LP's & Tapes chart. Reddy was subsequently dropped from the record label after the release; in her 2006 autobiography, The Woman I Am: A Memoir, Reddy wrote, "I was not surprised when I received a form letter from [MCA]'s legal department telling me that I'd been dropped from the label."
All-Time Greatest Hits is a compilation album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in 1991 by EMI-Capitol Special Markets and reissued by various labels with different covers on multiple occasions since.
The Best of Helen Reddy is a compilation album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in 1991 by EMI Music Group and focuses exclusively on her first seven LPs. The 20 songs selected are evenly balanced between chart hits such as "I Am Woman", "Delta Dawn", and "Angie Baby", and lesser-known album tracks, including "Summer of '71" and "Tulsa Turnaround".
I Am Woman: The Essential Helen Reddy Collection is a compilation album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in 1998 by Razor & Tie and, in addition to the title track, includes three additional songs written or cowritten by Reddy as well as rare compilation appearances by "Bluebird", "The Fool on the Hill", and two recordings from her brief time with MCA Records.
Absolutely the Best of Helen Reddy is a compilation album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in 2003 by Varèse Sarabande and includes both the original and hit single versions of "I Am Woman" in addition to several of her other popular recordings.
The Woman I Am: The Definitive Collection is a compilation album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in 2006 by Capitol Records in conjunction with the publication of her autobiography The Woman I Am: A Memoir. Unique to this best-of disc are the live recordings of "The West Wind Circus" and "Mama" from her 1978 concert LP Live in London and the Sunset Boulevard tune "Surrender" from her 1998 album Center Stage.
