Helen Reddy

Born in Melbourne in 1941, Reddy became one of the defining pop voices of the 1970s and the first Australian to top the Billboard Hot 100. Her “Delta Dawn”, produced by Tom Catalano and released in June 1973, went to No. 1 in the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and opened a run of eight Easy Listening chart-toppers. It is a genuinely superb record — brighter, bigger and more theatrical than anything the song had been given before. The only error in how it is remembered is chronological.