Take What You Find

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Take What You Find
Length31:07
LabelCapitol
ProducerRon Haffkine
Helen Reddy chronology
Reddy
(1979)
Take What You Find
(1980)
Play Me Out
(1981)

Take What You Find is the twelfth studio album by

LP that didn't have a single appearing on either the Billboard Hot 100[3] or the magazine's Easy Listening chart.[4]

Single

The album version of the title song was released in the

Allmusic's Joe Viglione wrote, "It is interesting how the pop divas of the '70s and '80s took some risks."[7] Olivia Newton-John's 1981 hit song "Physical" was banned by a few conservative radio stations at the time because of the sexually suggestive lyrics,[8]
but the view of casual sex that Reddy had already sung about the previous year in "Take What You Find" goes so far as to recommend taking any sexual encounter available, even if it means lowering one's standards:

Instant love keeps it light
Just enough to fill the night
High ideals left behind
Looking for love but you take what you find[9]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]

Charles Donovan's retrospective review on

Dr. Hook producer Ron Haffkine for Take What You Find, but despite tougher material like 'Killer Barracuda,' this was essentially another MOR-focused collection. Whatever artistic development there might have been failed to reverse Reddy's commercial decline."[1] The reviewer for Billboard magazine also noted the different feel of this project. "The sound is funkier and harder-edged than we've come to expect from Reddy, as she tackles such tough topic matter as 'Killer Barracuda',"[10]
in which she describes a rather vicious love-'em-and-leave-'em type.

Track listing

Side 1

  1. "Take What You Find" (Julie Didier, Casey Kelly) – 3:06
  2. "Killer Barracuda" (Kris Kristofferson) – 3:08
  3. "A Way with the Ladies" (Dennis Locorriere, Ray Sawyer) – 2:48
  4. "Love's Not the Question" (Hazel Smith) – 3:34
  5. "Last of the Lovers" (Robert Byrne) – 3:10

Side 2

  1. "The One I Sing My Love Songs To" (Wayland Holyfield) – 3:10
  2. "Wizard in the Wind" (Andrew Paul) – 3:14
  3. "All I Really Need Is You" (Shel Silverstein) – 2:08
  4. "Midnight Sunshine" (Shel Silverstein) – 3:08
  5. "That Plane" (Dennis Locorriere, Ray Sawyer, Shel Silverstein) – 3:41

Personnel

  • recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Sheffield, AL, and Sound Lab, Nashville, TN

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Take What You Find - Helen Reddy". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  2. ^ Whitburn 2010, p. 646.
  3. ^ Whitburn 2009, p. 805.
  4. ^ Whitburn 2007, p. 227.
  5. ^ (1980) "Take What You Find/Love's Not the Question" by Helen Reddy [7-inch single]. Los Angeles: Capitol Records 4867.
  6. ^ (1980) "Take What You Find/Take What You Find" by Helen Reddy [12-inch single]. Los Angeles: Capitol Records SPRO-9382.
  7. ^ "Imagination - Helen Reddy". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
  8. ^ Cannon, Bob (19 November 1993). "EW — Olivia Gets 'Physical'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  9. ^ (1980) Take What You Find by Helen Reddy [album sleeve]. Los Angeles: Capitol Records SOO 12068.
  10. ^ "Billboard's Top Album Picks". Billboard. 13 September 1980. p. 68.

References