Reddy (album)


Reddy is a 1979 album release by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy. Between 1971 and 1978, Reddy had had ten studio albums released by Capitol Records, the label also having issued her Greatest Hits album and a concert album: Live in London, the latter issued in December 1978 - which same month Reddy filed suit claiming Capitol Records had shortchanged her $1,793,000, the suit being an apparent bid to win release from the label. However Reddy, issued in June 1979, would be released by Capitol Records, Reddy's tenure with the label extending to include her twelfth studio album: Take What You Find, issued in 1980.
Reddy was noted by Billboard magazine for what set it apart from its predecessors: "It's the three disco tracks on the first side of this album that will probably draw the most attention, but more interesting from the point of view of Reddy's artistic growth are covers of soul ballads by Gamble & Huff and Eugene Record and rock material by the likes of The Doobie Brothers." That same review from the issue dated June 2 of that year also mentioned the exposure she received from The Helen Reddy Special, which had just aired on ABC on May 22, but, as with her previous two releases, Reddy did not reach Billboard's Top LP's & Tapes chart. It was also her last album to chart in Canada's RPM magazine when it peaked at number 97 there in August of that year.

Singles

May 1979 saw the release of the track "Make Love to Me" as both a twelve-inch single featuring the entire seven-minute album cut and as a 3:48 7" single edit: the former was lauded in Billboard's "Disco Mix" column: "Reddy belts out this song with the right combination of orchestration and arrangements that have no need for a break as the tune never lets down in energy level through its 7:02-minute length." The 7" single debuted on the Hot 100 in the May 19 issue of Billboard to rise to a number 60 peak during a ten week tenure: debuting on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart chart dated June 9, "Make Love to Me" would there spend five weeks reaching number 41 showings. "Make Love toe Me" also provided Reddy with her only hit on Billboards R&B with a seven week tenure from July 28 1979 and a peak of number 59.
"Make Love to Me" also afforded Reddy her final Canadian hit parade appearance, peaking at number 57 on the RPM singles chart. In Australia the June 1979 release of the Reddy album was accompanied by the single release of the track "Minute by Minute" rather than "Make Love to Me", the original version of the latter by Scottish singer Kelly Marie being still then in the Top 40 of the national Australian hit parade after peaking at number 5 in March. However "Make Love to Me" would be issued as Reddys second Australian single - and second Australian chart shortfall - in August 1979.
In the US, "Let Me Be Your Woman" - a ballad first recorded by Linda Clifford - would be the second single from Reddy and would reach number 43 Adult Contemporary during a five-week run from November 10 1979, becoming a Hot 100 shortfall.

Reception

Both Allmusic and Billboard suggested that this should have been Reddy's comeback album, the latter noting that her "album sales have tapered off in the past few years, but this LP proves that she is staying on top of trends rather than being content to stay in a cozy but confining MOR rut." And Allmusic's Charles Donovan writes retrospectively: "Her Top Ten days were over, but on the strength of this set, they shouldn't have been." Other critics were less enthused: Peter Reilly of Stereo Review dismissed Reddy as "a disco album that goes like clockwork - and is about as interesting. sound and performances are Precise, Rigid and, above all, Accurate..'Make Love to Me' is about as feverish and abandoned as John Travolta's agent closing a deal. 'Let Me Be Your Woman' has the properly improperly lustiness of disco passion in its lyrics, but Reddy's performance unspoken condition: only if your finish your oatmeal first. The album is engineered so that her adenoinal, girdled voice always rises above it all. Would that the listener could do the same." Christine Hogan of the Sydney Morning Herald similarly branded Reddy "a vocal technician presents material in much the same fashion and with about as much feeling as a computer. she sings well particularly on songs such as..'Minute by Minute' but on 'Make Love to Me' and 'Perfect Love Affair' a hard edge creeps into her voice. She might do better controlling herself a little less".

Track listing

Side 1
  1. "Trying to Get to You" – 3:36
  2. * Danny Seraphine – drums
  3. * Teddy Randazzo – keyboards
  4. * Jai Winding – keyboards
  5. * Ira Newborn – guitar
  6. * Bill Neale – guitar
  7. * Thom Rotella – guitar
  8. * Chuck Rainey – bass guitar
  9. * Ernie Watts – sax solo
  10. "Perfect Love Affair" – 3:34
  11. * James Gadson – drums
  12. * Teddy Randazzo – keyboards
  13. * Pete Robinson – keyboards
  14. * Paul Jackson Jr. – guitar
  15. * Robert Bowles – guitar
  16. * Eddie Watkins, Jr. – bass guitar
  17. * Ernie Watts – sax solo
  18. "The Magic Is Still There" – 2:58
  19. * Ed Greene – drums
  20. * Teddy Randazzo – keyboards
  21. * Jai Winding – keyboards
  22. * Robert White – guitar
  23. * Bill Neale – guitar
  24. * Scott Edwards – bass guitar
  25. "Make Love to Me" – 7:00
  26. * James Gadson – drums
  27. * Teddy Randazzo – keyboards
  28. * Pete Robinson – keyboards
  29. * Paul Jackson Jr. – guitar
  30. * Robert Bowles – guitar
  31. * Thom Rotella – guitar
  32. * Eddie Watkins, Jr. – bass guitar
Side 2
  1. "Minute by Minute" – 3:50
  2. * Danny Seraphine – drums
  3. * Teddy Randazzo – keyboards
  4. * Jai Winding – keyboards
  5. * Ira Newborn – guitar
  6. * Bill Neale – guitar
  7. * Chuck Rainey – bass guitar
  8. "Let Me Be Your Woman" – 3:00
  9. * Ed Greene – drums
  10. * Bill Cuomo – keyboards
  11. * Thom Rotella – guitar
  12. * Eddie Watkins, Jr. – bass guitar
  13. "You're So Good" – 2:59
  14. * James Gadson – drums
  15. * Teddy Randazzo – keyboards
  16. * Paul Jackson Jr. – guitar
  17. * Robert Bowles – guitar
  18. * Eddie Watkins, Jr. – bass guitar
  19. * Tower of Power horn section – horns
  20. * Lenny Pickett – sax solo
  21. "Words Are Not Enough" – 3:07
  22. * Ed Greene – drums
  23. * Chet McCracken – drums
  24. * Robert Lamm – keyboards
  25. * Teddy Randazzo – keyboards
  26. * Robert White – guitar
  27. * Bill Neale – guitar
  28. * Thom Rotella – guitar
  29. * Chuck Rainey – bass guitar
  30. * Leon Gaer – bass guitar
  31. * James Pankow – horns
  32. * Lee Loughnane – horns
  33. * Ernie Watts – horns
  34. "Sing My Heart Out" – 3:48
  35. * Danny Seraphine – drums
  36. * Jai Winding – keyboards
  37. * Ira Newborn – guitar
  38. * Bill Neale – guitar
  39. * Chuck Rainey – bass guitar
; Rarities from the Capitol Vaults tracks
In 2009 EMI Music Special Markets released Rarities from the Capitol Vaults, a 12-track CD of mostly what were previously unreleased Reddy recordings. One of the songs included was taken from the recording sessions for Reddy: