SATURDAY'S SINGLES : MAC DAVIS and HELEN REDDY

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Good morning gang and welcome to the return of Saturday's Singles. Today we pay tribute to both country music singer, songwriter, and actor, Mac Davis, and  Australian-American singer, songwriter, author, actress, and activist, Helen Reddy, who both passed away this past Tuesday (September 29, 2020), both at the age of 78. Since Davis was a few months younger, we start with him.

Morris Mac Davis was born January 21, 1942 in Lubbock Texas. His parents were  Edith Irene (Lankford) and T. J. Davis. They  got divorced and his Mother moved to Atlanta. When Mac graduated high school at age 16, he moved to Atlanta and started his musical career by getting a job at Nancy Sinatra's  Boots Enterprises, Inc. There, he not only played on her records, he wrote songs for  her, Elvis Presley, B. J. Thomas, and many others. In 1970, he was lured away by Columbia records and forged his own musical path while still writing for others, such as,  Bobby Goldsboro,  Vikki Carr, O.C. Smith, and Kenny Rogers and The First Edition. Davis' own brand of country music soon crossed over into pop ,as you were likely to hear the same songs on the country stations as you were to hear on the adult contemporary stations. From 1974 -1976 Davis hosted  The Mac Davis Show, a variety program on NBC. In 1979 he made his acting debut in the feature film North Dallas Forty, a football movie, starring Nick Nolte. He starred in both television and movies for nearly 5 decades.  He was married three times, and had three children. His discography boasts 20 studio albums, 8 compilations, and nearly 40 singles.

He passed away this week at age 78, following heart surgery. 

Our only Mac Davis single is this one. "The Beer Drinkin' Song" was released November of 1982 on Casablanca Records. It hailed from his 14th album, Forty 82, and peaked at #52 on Billboard's Country Singles chart.  The track is a humorous look at the state of the world in 1982. It's B-side is "You Are So Lovely".

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Helen Maxine Reddy was born October 25, 1941 in Melbourne, Australia to a show business family. Her parents were actress, singer, and dancer Stella Campbell and Maxwell David "Max" Reddy, a a writer, producer, and actor.  Helen started her career at age 4 by singing on radio and television commercials.  She won a talent contest in 1966 on the Bandstand and won a trip to New York for a record audition. That audition failed, but managed to get her foot in the door, and she moved to Chicago and eventually L.A. to pursue an international singing career. In the 70s with her sucess building, she released "I Am Woman" and became a feminist cultural icon. She was a popular guest on many variety shows in the 70s/80s and even hosted two herself,   The Helen Reddy Show and The Midnight Special. Her first acting role was in Airport 1975, a sequel to the disaster film, Airport, in which she played Nun Ruth. In her four decade music career, she released 18 studio albums, one live record, 15 compilations, and over 30 singles, including this one, the only song we have from her on 45. 

"Delta Dawn" was released in April 1972, on Columbia Records. It reached #1 in Australia, Canada, Canada Adult Contemporary, the Cash Box, Billboard's Easy Listening, and the Hot 100 charts. It came from her 4th record Long Hard Climb and features "If We Could Still Be Friends" on the flip side.

Helen Reddy passed away this week age 78, following long bouts with dementia and Addison’s disease.

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