Reddy became one of the world's most successful female singers of the 1970s music scene, scoring many certified gold hit records, including three #1 singles and fifteen Top 40 pop singles on Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and has sold more than 15 million albums and 10 million singles domestically and 25 million albums worldwide.
She also became the first Australian to have a #1 single in the United States, win a Grammy Award, and host her own variety show on United States television. Born and raised in Australia, Reddy became a naturalized United States citizen in 1974. In 2002, she retired from performing concerts and recording and now resides in Sydney, Australia and was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early years
Reddy was born into a well-known Australian show business family in Melbourne, Victoria. Her mother, Stella (née Lamond), was an actress, and her father, Max Reddy, was a writer, producer, and actor.
Her parents performed on the Australian vaudeville circuit. Reddy began performing on stage with her parents at just four years of age. In her late teens, after being briefly married to an older musician, she had a daughter, Traci. In 1968, Helen married longtime friend and soon-to-be producer and manager Jeffrey Wald and in 1974 her then-preteen daughter would record the bookend sequences for another of her mother's top-10 hits titled "You and Me Against the World." The Love Song for Jeffrey album, on which the song appeared, was dedicated to her then-husband, with whom she had a son, Jordan. They divorced in 1983.
After beginning her career in radio and television in Australia, she won a talent contest on the Australian pop music TV show Bandstand, which enabled her to move to the United States in 1966. Settling initially in New York, she met Jeff Wald, then an agent with the William Morris Agency; after living together for only four days, she and Wald married; he subsequently became her manager.
After a stint in Chicago, the family moved to Los Angeles, California, where Reddy tried to establish herself as a recording artist. Twenty-seven labels rejected her before she was finally signed to a contract with Capitol Records in 1970.
After years of trying to get her name out, Helen Reddy's first Top 40 U.S. hit (1971) was a cover of "I Don't Know How To Love Him" (from the first Rice & Webber collaboration Jesus Christ Superstar rock opera). After it reached #13 in mid-1971, the music industry and record buying public began to take notice.
In 1972, Reddy co-wrote, with Australian musician Ray Burton, the song "I Am Woman," which became a worldwide feminist anthem, worldwide hit, and her first U.S #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Reddy has 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 saying that she was looking for songs to record which reflected the positive self-image she had gained from joining the women's movement, but couldn't find any, so "I realized that the song I was looking for didn't exist, and I was going to have to write it myself." The single actually barely dented the charts on its initial release in the summer of 1972, but it wasn't long before female listeners adopted the song as an anthem and began requesting it from their local radio stations in droves, spurring it on to re-enter the charts in September and become a hit. "I Am Woman" earned a Grammy Award for Female Pop Vocal Performance and at the awards ceremony she concluded her acceptance speech by famously thanking God "because She makes everything possible".
Over the next five years, she had more than a dozen other U.S. Top 40 hits including two more #1 hits. These included the Alex Harvey country ballad "Delta Dawn" (#1, 1973), "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" (#3), "Keep on Singing" (#15, 1974), "You and Me Against the World" (written by Paul Williams and featuring daughter Traci reciting the spoken bookends) (#9), "Emotion" (an English version of the French tune "Amoureuse"), "Peaceful" (#12), "Angie Baby" (#1), "Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady" (#8, 1975), Richard Kerr-Will Jennings-penned "Somewhere in the Night" (#19; later a bigger hit for Barry Manilow), and the Carole King-Gerry Goffin song "I Can't Hear You No More" (1976). Her last Top 20 record was a 1977 revival of Cilla Black's 1964 hit "You're My World", co-produced by Kim Fowley. Reddy's final chart record was "I Can't Say Goodbye To You" in 1981. She was most successful on the Adult Contemporary charts, scoring eight #1 hits there over a three-year span, from "Delta Dawn" to "I Can't Hear You No More."
At the height of her fame in the late 1970s, Helen Reddy was a headliner, with a full chorus of backup singers and dancers to standing-room-only crowds on The Strip in Las Vegas. Reddy's opening acts were the then-up-and-coming Barry Manilow, and Joan Rivers. In 1976, Reddy covered the Beatles song "Fool on the Hill" for the musical documentary All This and World War II.
Reddy was also instrumental in furthering the career of Olivia Newton-John as she encouraged her friend to move from Britain to the United States in the early 1970s. At a subsequent party at Reddy's house after a chance meeting with Allan Carr, the film's producer, Newton-John won the starring role in the hit film version of the musical Grease as result.
Reddy has lent her acting and singing talents to many stage, movie and television productions.
Her film career includes roles in Airport 1975 and Walt Disney's Pete's Dragon (in which she sang "Candle on the Water," which has become one of her best-known songs despite only charting on the A/C charts). For her part in Airport 1975, Roddy was nominated for a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer - Female.
Reddy appeared as a guest on numerous television specials and variety shows, and a guest star on episodes of numerous television series, including Love Boat, Fantasy Island, BeastMaster and others.
Reddy was a host and performer, between 1973 and 1975, on some episodes of the late-night variety television show The Midnight Special. She also hosted her own variety television program, The Helen Reddy Show, in the summer of 1973.
Reddy became a naturalised American citizen in 1974. In 2007, Reddy had a voice cameo as herself in the Family Guy television show's Star Wars parody "Blue Harvest". She played a 'red' themed ('Red'-dy) member of the Red Squadron alongside Red Five (Chris Griffin), Red Buttons, Redd Foxx, Big Red, Red October, Simply Red and others.
Reddy's stage credits include performances in Anything Goes, Call Me Madam, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and works by British playwright Willy Russell. Reddy appeared both on Broadway and in the West End of London in the musical Blood Brothers, and in four productions of Shirley Valentine.
Active in community affairs, Reddy served as the state of California's Parks and Recreation commissioner for three years. In 2002, she retired from performing and moved from Santa Monica, California, to Norfolk Island.
Reddy published an autobiography, The Woman I Am, and appeared on the Today show in 2006. She was also added to the ARIA Hall Of Fame, with a tribute performance by Vanessa Amorosi of "I Am Woman" at the ceremony.
For several years, Reddy maintained that she would not return to the stage. In 2012, 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. On 12 July 2012, Reddy returned to the musical stage at Croce's Jazz Bar in San Diego and for a benefit concert for the arts at St. Genevieve High School in Panorama City, a neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Reddy suffered from Addison's disease, a failure of the adrenal glands, and dementia in her later years.s
Best Friend
Helen Reddy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Would you be kinder to yourself
Would you be more forgiving of your human imperfections
If you realized your best friend was yourself
Who is always with you everywhere
Who is on your side when others are unfair
And tell me, who will never let you down in any situation
And that's why I am a best friend to myself
And I take me out whenever I feel low
And I make my life as happy as a best friend would
I'm as nice to me as anyone I know
And that's why I am a best friend to myself
And I take me out whenever I feel low
And I make my life as happy as a best friend would
I'm as nice to me as anyone I know
The song "Best Friend" by Helen Reddy is a powerful reminder that the person we should treat as our best friend is ourselves. The lyrics call attention to the fact that we often neglect ourselves and are quick to criticize our own shortcomings, while we go out of our way to support and be kind to our friends. The opening lines of the song are a series of rhetorical questions that encourage us to reflect on how we treat ourselves. The lines "Would you take better care of yourself/Would you be kinder to yourself/Would you be more forgiving of your human imperfections/If you realized your best friend was yourself" point to the importance of self-care and self-compassion.
The song recognizes the many ways in which we can be our own best friend. We are always with ourselves, even when we feel alone or isolated. We can be our own source of support when others are treating us unfairly. We can rely on ourselves to never let us down and to always ensure we get our fair share. The lyrics "And that's why I am a best friend to myself/And I take me out whenever I feel low/And I make my life as happy as a best friend would/I'm as nice to me as anyone I know" remind us that we have the ability to uplift and make ourselves happy, just like a best friend would.
Overall, Helen Reddy's "Best Friend" is a powerful anthem encouraging us to recognize and appreciate ourselves as our own best friend. It serves as a reminder to prioritize self-care and to be kind and compassionate towards ourselves.
Line by Line Meaning
Would you take better care of yourself
If you saw yourself as your own best friend, would you make more of an effort to take care of yourself?
Would you be kinder to yourself
If you considered yourself your own best friend, would you treat yourself more kindly?
Would you be more forgiving of your human imperfections
If you acknowledged yourself as your own best friend, would you forgive yourself more readily for your imperfections and shortcomings?
If you realized your best friend was yourself
If you recognized that you are your own best friend, how would you treat yourself differently?
Who is always with you everywhere
You are always with yourself no matter where you go.
Who is on your side when others are unfair
When others are treating you unfairly, you can rely on yourself to always be on your own side.
And tell me, who will never let you down in any situation
When you are facing difficult situations, you can always count on yourself to never let you down.
Who will always see you get your share
Yourself, as your own best friend, will always ensure that you get your fair share of opportunities and experiences.
And that's why I am a best friend to myself
I treat myself like my own best friend because I know the value of self-care and self-compassion.
And I take me out whenever I feel low
When I am feeling down, I make an effort to do things that make me happy and improve my mood.
And I make my life as happy as a best friend would
I aim to make my life as fulfilling and joyful as a best friend would want for me.
I'm as nice to me as anyone I know
I treat myself with kindness and compassion, just as I would do for someone else that I care about.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: HELEN REDDY, RAY BURTON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Justin W
I love Helen's voice great singer!
Dan Dragner
Indded so....... What a unique voice, and a wonderful person.
Linda Lawrence
Absolutely Amazing & such Beautiful lyrics , Best song that I've ever heard, Its just Absolutely Beautiful, 😍😍😍 Thank you for sharing the music
Dan Dragner
Thank You so much for uploading this wonderful, heart warming song. Funny thing, when I'm down, this song cheers me up !
The ARMYFLYER
Beautiful voice! The woman playing Linda Blairs mother, Nancy Olsen, is still alive at 92
gmfd76
There's just no way I can watch this scene (or movie, for that matter) without being reminded of "Airplane!" at every turn ;)
tweetie pie
I knooow.. lol... i kept waiting for the nun to knock out tubes and passengers to turn around with goofy smiles lol
MontcomHorror
Been too long since I’ve seen “Airplane.” Comedies for me do not rewatch well because it’s like listening to someone retell their jokes.
Jennifer Agbebiyi
My mom sent this to me. I'm going through a tough time in life and my mom has been there for me no matter what. ❤
eastbend99
I hardly consider this "among the worst sequels." Of all the Airport movies, this one is actually the best. I bought it on DVD, and enjoy watching it. Great for aviation buffs, but also just a great movie overall; a favorite from my childhood.