I Am Woman (Helen Reddy)

I Am Woman is Helen Reddy's third studio album that was released in November of 1972 by Capitol Records.
==Tracklisting==
#Peaceful	
#I Am Woman	
#This Masquerade	
#I Didn't Mean To Love You	
#Where Is My Friend	
#And I Love You So	
#What Would They Say	
#Where Is The Love	
#Hit The Road Jack	
#The Last Blues Song
==Album Background==
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 due to its length and arrangement, she thought that it "clearly was not hit-single material."
When the song selected for use in the 1972 film "Stand Up and Be Counted", Reddy's record company wanted a longer version of it to release as a 45 in conjunction with the opening of the film.
The new recording of "I Am Woman" 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!"'".
Reddy's 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 from the album (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. 
On December 18, "I Am Woman" earned Gold certification for sales of the one million copies that was the requirement for singles at that time.
The song also spent two weeks at #2 on the Billboard'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 began a run of 17 weeks on the pop chart in the February 3 issue that eventually took the song to #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 #2 there. In RPM, it also reached #12 pop.
==Chart Performance==
"I Am Woman" peaked at #14 on the Billboard 200, staying on the chart for 62 weeks. It also peaked at #7 in Canada's RPM magazine.
==Critical 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."
Category:1970s albums
Category:Pop Rock
Category:Pop