AMG Review of No Way to Treat a Lady

Charles Donovan
All Music Guide

No Way to Treat a Lady was just another in a long line of Helen Reddy albums that failed to bring any changes -- a move that paid off with strong sales. Its title track was a hummable soft-rock hit, and again there were songs from Peter Allen and Paul Williams. At this point, listeners couldn't be blamed for wondering if every Reddy album had come from the same sessions. The only giveaway that this was indeed new material was Reddy's increasingly mannered voice, notably on the execrable "You Don't Need a Reason." This trite song found the antipodean Reddy performing a spoken intro in an embarrassing and unconvincing American accent. Apart from that and a dull "Somewhere in the Night" (later a hit for Barry Manilow), much of No Way to Treat a Lady is the kind of sweet, sentimental, well-performed fare her fans loved.