Onstage

English singer Melanie C performed "I Don't Know How to Love Him" in the role of Mary Magdalene during the Jesus Christ Superstar Live Arena Tour which had its initial UK run in September - October 2012 also playing the O2 Dublin 12 October 2012, followed first by an Australian tour in May - June 2013 and then an encore UK run in October 2012. Melanie C had debuted her performance of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" on 25 July 2012 when she sang the song to Andrew Lloyd Webber's piano accompaniment on the final of the reality-TV talent show Superstar broadcast by ITV. The Adelaide Now review of the ...Live Arena Tour's 4 June 2012 performance at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre stated: "Melanie C absolutely blitzes her big number 'I Don't Know How To Love Him' bringing a more raw rock edge to the bridge before hitting the final big notes right out of the arena."^[13]

Recording

Melanie C made a studio recording of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" for her 9 September 2012 album Stages, a show tune album produced by the singer's longtime collaborator Peter-John Vettese^[14] from which "I Don't Know How to Love Him" had been issued in digital download format^[15] as a preview^[16][17] to rank after its first week of release at #20 on the UK Independent Singles Chart.

Background and recording

In her autobiography The Woman I Am, Helen Reddy states that Mogull invited her to record a single after seeing her perform on a Tonight Show episode (the guest host Flip Wilson had invited Reddy to appear; Wilson knew Reddy from the club circuit). Mogull himself attributed his interest in Reddy to the solicitations on her behalf by her then-husband and manager Jeff Wald who called Mogull three times a day for five months asking him to let Reddy cut a song. Larry Marks produced Reddy's recording of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" and "I Believe in Music" at A&M's recording studios. According to Reddy, her extreme anxiety – "I had waited years for this shot and I didn't think there would be another one" – manifested in her vocals making "I Believe in Music" ineffectual but "I Don't Know How to Love Him" convincingly plaintive, clinching the decision to make the latter the A-side of the single, released in January 1971. In a 1974 Billboard tribute to Helen Reddy, writer Cynthia Spector states "I Don't Know How to Love Him" became a hit due to the efforts of Jeff Wald "who stayed on the phone morning to night, cajoling, bullying, wheedling airplay from disk jockeys. Using $4,000 of his own money, his own telephone credit card and his American Express card to wine and dine anyone who would listen to his wife, he made the record happen."^[24]

Release

Reddy attributes the eventual success of her recording of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" to the positive listener response the track received at the first station where it was played, WDRC (AM) in Hartford, Conn. A number of the "local requests" for "I Don't Know How to Love Him" originated in Los Angeles, made by Reddy's visiting nephew—a teenage Australian actor with a penchant for different voices—and also a number of Reddy's friends, with Reddy admitting: "I may have made a call or two myself." ^[25] In April 1971 WDRC program director Charles R. Parker would relate how Reddy and Wald had visited WDRC to thank the station for its initial support of Reddy's "I Don't Know How to Love Him," with Reddy and Wald expressing how they "were more than delighted and surprised to see [the track] break on Top 40 at WDRC."^[26]

Chart impact

Reddy's recording of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" entered the national charts in March 1971 – showing in the Top Ten in Dallas and Denver that month^[27] – but its momentum was so gradual as to not effect Top 40 entry until that May; by then MCA Records had issued the original Yvonne Elliman track as a single and from 15 May 1971 to 26 June 1971 both versions were in the Top 40 with Reddy's version maintaining the upper hand peaking at No. 13 while Elliman's version peaked at No. 28. "I Don't Know How to Love Him" became Reddy's first major hit single in her native Australia, peaking at No. 2 on the Go-Set Top 40 chart for two weeks in August 1971 with an eventual ranking as the No. 8 hit for the year 1971. On Australia's Kent Music Report, the song also reached No. 2, but stayed at that position for eight consecutive weeks. The track also afforded Reddy a hit in Europe with a March 1972 peak of No. 14 in Sweden—the Swedish production of Jesus Christ Superstar had begun a record-setting run in February 1972—and an April 1972 peak of No. 23 in the Netherlands.

The success of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" led to Reddy's being signed to a long-term contract by Capitol who released her I Don't Know How to Love Him album in August 1971. The track issued as a follow-up single: a version of Van Morrison's "Crazy Love" stalled short of the Top 40 at No. 51, while the album charted with a moderate No. 100 peak; Reddy's subsequent success, however, garnered her debut album sufficient interest for it be certified as a Gold record in 1974. Also of note, the I Don't Know How to Love Him album included an initial arrangement of Reddy's signature song, "I Am Woman" which via a 1972 re-recording with a new arrangement would prove to be the vehicle to consolidate Reddy's stardom, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated 9 December 1972.