Australian-born singer struggled initially to establish herself on fiercely competitive US music market, but her third album for "Capitol Records" proved to be third time luck - previous albums all had their moments, in fact the song that put Reddy on the map was already introduced previous year on 1971. "I Don't Know How To Love Him" album where for some reason it was ignored. Now, with arrangements slightly changed and tweaked, it suddenly became smash hit. Same song, same melody, same lyrics and same voice but now the whole world woke up and suddenly it became Nr.1 hit on the singles charts.
Career-defining song of course touched nerve with million female listeners around the world who took its lyrics as self-empowering battle call and Reddy found herself in the front line of feminist movement, which was fine by the singer who wrote the lyrics herself. Urban, intelligent and educated, Reddy was also independent individual who came to US as a single mother of a little daughter, so obviously she was a good role model and her strength was admirable - that she also had highly appealing voice helped, since world suffered hangover from excesses of late 1960s and suddenly audience craved simplicity of the voices like Reddy, Karen Carpenter and Anne Murray who all ruled radio-waves at the time.
As collection of songs, "I Am Woman" might be the best introduction to Helen Reddy - it has nice flow of that particular breezy, 1970s pop and combines upbeat numbers with ballads, which were always her strongest point. "This Masquerade" nests comfortably next to "And I Love You So" by Don McLean, while "Where Is The Love" and surprisingly, "Hit The Road Jack" works just fine as showcase for singer's talent. From this moment, Reddy will be unstoppable trough the rest of decade and each of her subsequent releases will have interesting highlights but its the title song that she will forever be associated with.
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