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
Delta Dawn
Helen Reddy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was ameetin' you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky
She's forty-one and her daddy still calls her baby
All the folks around Brownsville say she's crazy
'Cause she walks downtown with a suitcase in her hand
In her younger days they called her Delta Dawn
Prettiest woman you ever laid eyes on
Then a man of low degree stood by her side
And promised her he'd take her for his bride
Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was ameetin' you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky
Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was ameetin' you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky
Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was ameetin' you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky
Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was ameetin' you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky
Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was ameetin' you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky
The song "Delta Dawn" by Helen Reddy tells the story of a woman named Delta Dawn who is looking for a man who promises to take her to his mansion in the sky. Dawn is 41 years old, but her father still calls her "baby," leading some around Brownsville to think she's crazy. She walks around town carrying a suitcase, searching for a mysterious dark-haired man who made her a bride promise in the past. The song then suggests that this man is deceased, hence the mention of his mansion in the sky.
The lyrics paint a vivid and sad picture of Delta Dawn's life. She was once considered the prettiest woman around and had a bright future, but she got caught up in a bad situation with a man of "low degree." The man broke his promise to her, and now, years later, she still seeks the happiness she never found with him. Delta Dawn's situation represents the struggles of many people who feel lost and stuck in life, unable to move beyond their past mistakes and bad relationships.
Line by Line Meaning
Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on?
Asking Delta who the flower she wears symbolizes
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
Wondering if the rose is a reminder of a past relationship
And did I hear you say he was ameetin' you here today
Inquiring if Delta's waiting for a man
To take you to his mansion in the sky
Assuming that the man is dead and taking her to the afterlife
She's forty-one and her daddy still calls her baby
Describing Delta's age and how her father continues to treat her like a child
All the folks around Brownsville say she's crazy
People in Delta's hometown think of her as eccentric or unstable
'Cause she walks downtown with a suitcase in her hand
Speculating that Delta may be leaving town with her belongings in tow
Lookin' for a mysterious dark-haired man
Searching for a man who's unfamiliar to the people around her
In her younger days they called her Delta Dawn
Recalling Delta's youthful days when she was known by a different name
Prettiest woman you ever laid eyes on
Describing the beauty that Delta possessed
Then a man of low degree stood by her side
Referring to Delta's relationship with a man who had less social status than her
And promised her he'd take her for his bride
Relating how the man convinced Delta to marry him
Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on?
Repeating the opening question asked in the song's introduction
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
Asking if the flower is a remnant of a relationship from the past
And did I hear you say he was ameetin' you here today
Repeating the question from earlier
To take you to his mansion in the sky
Asking once again if the man Delta is waiting for is deceased
Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on?
Asking a third time about the flower
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
Reiterating the speculation about the flower's symbolism
And did I hear you say he was ameetin' you here today
Repeating the question again
To take you to his mansion in the sky
Repeating the assumption that the man is no longer alive
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Alex Harvey, Larry Collins
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@TheWolfman112
I think Reddy's facial expressions make this song 10x better when she sings it. Especially in the beginning.
@cindy-mq6pl
Oh for the music and sensible times of my youth!
@lovedo1966
I love this I was very small .. mama had her radio on and I would listen to every song playing. This one caught my little ears.
@brianwilliams1259
Delta dawn was my favorite song when I was growing up in the70s it still is today.
@lordbison
Great Song 👏🙏🏾 Helen Reddy!
@markburrell2750
This and Angie Baby ❤... always loved them both... what a talent
@dallaslane1355
❤❤❤
@JorgePaniagua-oz4kp
Buen gusto el suyo amigo 👍👍🤝✨🌞✨
@NycNikos
One of a kind!! Amazing talent ! So grateful I got to see her live.
@davidpanetta6400
I loved her music. And she was very beautiful. The music from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and most of the 80s were great. After that, most of the music changed and not for the better.