Helen Reddy (album)


Helen Reddy is the second studio album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy, released on 20 November 1971 by Capitol Records. Reddy's selections include tracks by singer-songwriters Carole King, John Lennon, Randy Newman, and Donovan. It debuted on Billboard magazine's Top LP's chart in the issue dated December 4, 1971, and had a seven-week chart run in which it got as high as number 167. On March 29, 2005, the album was released for the first time on compact disc as one of two albums on one CD, the other album being I Don't Know How to Love Him, Reddy's debut LP that originally came out in the spring of 1971.

Single

Billboard's December 4, 1971, issue also marked the first appearance of the single from the album, "No Sad Song", on the magazine's Hot 100, where it spent eight weeks and peaked at number 62, and the December 25 issue, three weeks later, began the song's four weeks on the Easy Listening chart, where it reached number 32. It also reached number 51 on the pop chart in Canada's RPM magazine.

Reception

Village Voice critic Robert Christgau chose to highlight "a scathing death-of-a-cocksman song that Carole King somehow left off Music , a John Lennon autotherapy that sounds inquisitive instead of foolish , and a frolicsome sisterhood ditty that wrote herself ." Joe Viglione of AllMusic retrospectively describes the album as "a pleasant listening experience, though it was the only one of her early albums not to find representation on her Greatest Hits. Because there was no big hit on the record, it is not as well-known as her other recordings, but it definitely has charm and is an essential part of her collection of music."

Track listing

Side 1
  1. "Time" – 3:38
  2. *Leland Sklar – bass
  3. *Ron Tutt – drums
  4. * Paul Parrish – piano
  5. "How?" – 3:33
  6. *Nick DeCaro – string arrangement
  7. *Jerry Scheff – bass
  8. *Ron Tutt – drums
  9. *Craig Doerge – piano
  10. *Tom Hensley – piano
  11. "Come on John" – 4:21
  12. *Jerry Scheff – bass
  13. *Ron Tutt – drums
  14. *Craig Doerge – piano
  15. *Tom Hensley – piano
  16. *David Cohen – guitar
  17. "Summer of '71" – 2:36
  18. * Jack Conrad – bass
  19. *John Guerin – drums
  20. *Dennis Budimir – guitar
  21. *David Cohen – guitar
  22. "I Don't Remember My Childhood" – 3:32
  23. *Nick DeCaro – string arrangement
  24. *Larry Knechtel – piano
Side 2
  1. "No Sad Song" – 3:11
  2. *Nick DeCaro – accordion
  3. *Ron Tutt – drums
  4. *David Cohen – guitar
  5. *Larry Carlton – mandolin
  6. "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" – 2:27
  7. *Bob Thompson – arranger
  8. "Tulsa Turnaround" – 3:24
  9. *Joe Osborn – bass
  10. *Ron Tutt – drums
  11. *Larry Carlton – electric guitar
  12. *Tom Hensley – piano
  13. *Sneaky Pete Kleinow – steel guitar
  14. "More Than You Could Take" – 2:41
  15. *Jerry Scheff – bass
  16. *Ron Tutt – drums
  17. *Dean Parks – guitar
  18. *John Brennan – guitar
  19. "New Year's Resovolution" – 3:40
  20. *Leland Sklar – bass
  21. *Russ Kunkel – drums
  22. *John Brennan – guitar
  23. *Larry Carlton –guitar
  24. *David Cohen – guitar
  25. *Milt Holland – percussion
;French version of "No Sad Song"
In 2009 EMI Music Special Markets released Rarities from the Capitol Vaults, a 12-track CD of mostly what were previously unreleased Reddy recordings, which included "Plus De Chansons Tristes", the French version of "No Sad Song" that was only released in France.

Personnel