I Am Woman is the third studio album by Australian–American pop singer Helen Reddy, released on November 13, 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 the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart in the issue dated December 9, 1972, and reached number 14 during a 62-week run, 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.
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, produced by Jay Senter, was done at Sunwest Recording Studio, Los Angeles, California, on April 23, 1972, and was made available on May 22 of that year. 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.
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.”
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 [in 1973] 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.
“Peaceful” 2:50
“I Am Woman” 3:24
“This Masquerade” 3:35
“I Didn’t Mean to Love You” 4:00
“Where Is My Friend” 3:10
“And I Love You So” 4:00
“What Would They Say” 2:45
“Where Is the Love” 3:01
“Hit the Road Jack” 2:18
“The Last Blues Song” 2:41
Helen Reddy – vocals
Mike Deasy – guitars
Jim Gordon – drums
Mike Melvoin – piano
Leland Sklar – bass
Dick Hyde – trombone, string and horn arrangements
Don Menza – saxophone
Kathy Deasy – backing vocals
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