“Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me”

I am supposing that many of you recognize the lyrics above, but that many of you cannot remember who sang those songs.

I will help you. MAC DAVIS and HELEN REDDY are the vocalists! Both of them were 78 years young when they recently passed on.

Davis, who died apparently from heart problems, was a song-writer and a singer and an actor, who played a quarterback (Don Meredith’s image) in the popular movie, North Dallas Forty, and who had that “country something” that attracted people. His career began more as a writer of songs for other people (Elvis Presley, Kenny Rogers, Bobby Goldsboro) and included “In the Ghetto,” which was a big hit for Elvis.

And just maybe, some of you King of the Hill followers recognized his voice in that television series.

Davis, born in Lubbock and then later moving to Atlanta and Los Angeles and Nashville, was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Songwriters in 2006. Two of his songs that are “favs” of mine are “Texas in My Rearview Mirror” and “Memories.” Mac Davis, when asked about his writing process, once said, “I try to tell the truth and hope it rhymes.”

Reddy was Australianborn and living in Los Angeles at the time of her death, and her children described this woman, who wrote a feminist anthem called “I Am Woman,” as “formidable.”

She stated that she was considered a “jazz” singer when in Australia and was once criticized as having a “non-commercial” singing sound! She had to overcome this label as she began to launch her career in the United States, even though she had been a performer since childhood with her family.

1971 marks the early date of the string of her many, many hits that began with “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from the Jesus Christ Superstar super musical that was also controversial with its depiction of JESUS. Two other hits I remember most are “Delta Dawn” and “Angie Baby.”

Reddy once said that she tried to distance herself later from public life when she saw a section of a textbook that featured her in a lesson about feminism—and she realized that she would never be able to “top” becoming part of history!

Helen Reddy returned to Australia in the ‘90s and earned a degree in “clinical hypnotherapy,” while occasionally returning to the stage to perform; her hit, “I Am Woman,” is still quite often used as illustrative music in films and television productions.

Mac Davis and Helen Reddy, more influential and more important than either one probably ever realized—were good people in my opinion!