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. ~ Charles Donovan