I Am Woman is the third studio album by Australian–American pop singer Helen Reddy, released in November 1972 by Capitol Records. The album included her second recording of the song that gave the album its name, which was also the version that spent a week at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The album debuted on Billboard's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated December 9, 1972, and reached number 14 during its 62 weeks there, and in Canada's RPM magazine it peaked at number seven. On March 7, 1973, the Recording Industry Association of America awarded the album with Gold certification for sales of 500,000 copies in the United States, and Platinum certification for sales of one million copies came on December 5, 1991. On July 22, 2003, it was released for the first time on compact disc as one of two albums on one CD, the other album being her 1973 release Long Hard Climb.
Background
Singles
The song "I Am Woman" was originally written for and included on Reddy's 1971 debut album, I Don't Know How to Love Him, but, because of its length and arrangement, she thought it "clearly was not hit-single material." When it was selected for use in the 1972 film Stand Up and Be Counted, her record company wanted a longer version to release as a 45 in conjunction with the opening of the film. The new recording of the song was done at Sunwest Recording Studio, Los Angeles, California, and was made available on May 22, 1972, but Reddy has summarized the response to the song from most disc jockeys that she experienced as, "'"I can't stand this record! I hate this song! But you know, it's a funny thing, my wife loves it!"'". Her husband-manager Jeff Wald landed her 19 appearances on various television shows where she could perform it, and "women began calling radio stations and requesting the song, thereby forcing airplay." Other tracks, such as "Peaceful", were recorded at recording engineer Armin Steiner's Sound Labs Studio, Los Angeles, California, for Reddy's album, which would be named after her aforementioned single. It wasn't until almost seven months later, in the December 9 issue of Billboard magazine, that it sat atop the list of the 100 most popular songs in the US, and on December 18 it earned Gold certification for sales of the one million copies that was the requirement for singles at that time. It also spent two weeks at number two on the magazine's Easy Listening chart over the course of the 22 weeks that it was there and three weeks at number one on RPM's list of Canada's top 100 hit songs. A second single, "Peaceful", was released on January 29, 1973, and started a run of 17 weeks on the pop chart in the February 3 issue that eventually took the song to number 12. Its debut on the Easy Listening chart came two weeks later, in the February 17 issue, and, as with the title song, it also enjoyed two weeks at number two there. In RPM it also reached number 12 pop.
Reception
Billboard's reviewer wrote that "the powerful stylist offers by far her finest package, artistically and commercially." Charles Donovan of AllMusic retrospectively noted that, except for the cover of 'Hit the Road Jack', the album was "a fine collection of light pop and ballads" and that the second single was "everything easy listening should be: undemanding, sweet and flawlessly produced."
Grammy Award
In Thomas O'Neil's book The Grammys: The Ultimate, Unofficial Guide to Music's Highest Honor, O'Neil writes, "The most famous acceptance speech in the history of the Grammys was given by Helen Reddy when she picked up the trophy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for 'I Am Woman'." Reddy concluded her speech by thanking "'God because She makes everything possible,'" and "was flooded with protest letters from religious fundamentalists" afterwards.
