LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Helen Reddy: Capitol Records
built 278 days ago
Helen Reddy signed with Capitol Records and continued to churn out hit songs in the 1970s with "Delta Dawn" in 1973 and "Angie Baby" in 1974. She played concerts and was ... featured in nightclubs and cabarets. Helen Reddy also performed in Broadway theater and performed with symphony orchestras.
Source:
The stories behind two of Reddy's biggest hits illustrate the often fickle nature of success in the music business. Both Bette Midler and the young Tanya Tucker recorded their own versions of "Delta Dawn" just before Reddy recorded hers. When the song started to get airplay, Barbra Streisand 's producer Tom Catalano decided that Streisand could have a pop hit with it, so he had an instrumental backing track recorded. Fortunately for Reddy, Streisand refused to sing the song, so United Artists song plugger Wally Schuster called Jeff Wald and offered the song and the completed backing track to Reddy, who put her own vocal on it.
Source:
Reddy didn't like the way the original version came out and neither did the producer (he thought she sounded "too butch"), but they put it on the album anyway. Another producer DID like it. Movie producer Mike Frankovitch wanted to use it in his "feminist comedy" Stand Up And Be Counted. Reddy agreed on 2 conditions: That she would re-record the song, and that he would donate $1000 each to Women's Centers in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.
Source:
Reddy most recently recorded a duet with sister Toni Lamond on Lamond's latest CD, "Still A Gypsy," singing "Breezin' Along With the Breeze," a traveling song of two sisters riding the open country in a convertible. It's the first time sisters have recorded together.
Source:
In 1972, Helen wrote a feminist anthem, "I Am Woman," which became a number one record and earned her a Grammy. Her next single, "Peaceful," was ... a hit. And then came the high water mark of her career: an enigmatic number, "Delta Dawn."
Source:
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.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Capitol Records