Recording and Release

An apparent farewell to a self-absorbed lover, "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" was first recorded by its composer Harriet Schock

Harriet Schock

Harriet Schock is an American singer, songwriter, teacher, author, and actress. She made three albums for a major label in the 70s, scoring gold and platinum awards for her Grammy-nominated Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady, before moving into teaching and soundtrack work, and then resuming an ongoing...

 who'd recall having written the first verse and title of "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" on a serviette "on an airplane as I was leaving someone for...one of the last times I left him for the last time". The song was introduced on Schock's 1974 album Hollywood Town and issued as a single. Schock states that the program director at a key Los Angeles radio station was taken with the track but found its arrangement slow. 20th Century Records

20th Century Records

20th Century Fox Records, also known as 20th Fox Records and 20th Century Records, was a subsidiary of film studio 20th Century Fox.-History:It began in 1958 as 20th Fox Records. In 1963, 20th Fox Records became 20th Century-Fox Records...

 obligingly had Schock cut a brisker version which was delivered to the radio station on a Friday to start airing the following Monday. Schock recalls: "Well, Sunday the program director had a fight with someone at the station and quit."

Helen Reddy version

Despite the failure of Schock's own single version of "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" – and also that of a concurrent cover by a group named LAX – the song gained a reasonably high profile via its inclusion on the 1974 album One Hell of a Woman by Vikki Carr

Vikki Carr

Vikki Carr is an American singer and humanitarian from El Paso, Texas. She has performed in a variety of music genres, including jazz, pop and country, but has enjoyed her greatest success singing in Spanish.-Career:After taking the stage name 'Vikki Carr', she signed with Liberty Records in 1962...

 and in 1975 Helen Reddy recorded "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" for an album which was entitled No Way to Treat a Lady: the personnel on Reddy's album included guitarist Lee Ritenour

Lee Ritenour

Lee Mack Ritenour is an American jazz guitarist who has recorded over 42 albums, appeared on over 3000 sessions, and has charted over 30 instrumental and vocal contemporary jazz hits since 1976. One of his most popular songs was the smash hit, “Is It You” in 1981. Ritenour is considered to be a...

.

Although the choice of lead single from No Way to Treat a Lady went to the Leon Russell

Leon Russell

Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....

 song "Bluebird", the influential LA radio station 93 KHJ

KHJ (AM)

KHJ Radio in Los Angeles, California broadcasts Spanish-language entertainment programming as La Ranchera. It was also one of America's most formidable Top 40 radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s as 93 KHJ before changing its format in 1980....

 began playing "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady", forcing its release as a single in August 1975 with a chart peak that October of #8 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 (#5 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart).

"Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" reached #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening

Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks

The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...

 charts for 4 October 1975. Although Helen Reddy would have one further Easy Listening #1 - "I Can't Hear You No More" - for a total of eight, "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" would be Reddy's final single to go Top Ten Pop. "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" was also a hit (#12) in New Zealand and became Reddy's final chart item in her native Australia at #94.

Schock's reaction

Schock states that her intent in writing "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" was to reference a specific personal experience: that the song is regarded as a statement of how women are generally treated by men is, Schock suggests, "because it was a hit by [Helen Reddy] the same artist who spoke so widely for all women in 'I Am Woman

I Am Woman

"I Am Woman" is a song cowritten by Helen Reddy and singer/songwriter/guitarist Ray Burton and performed by Reddy. Released in its most well-known version in 1970, the song became an enduring anthem for the women’s liberation movement.-Success:...

'...[and] apparently other women wanted to say [what Schock's song says] to someone. I received a number of calls from women telling me it was just the kick they needed to get that divorce."

Other covers

A disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

 version of "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" was recorded by Gonzalez

Gonzalez (band)

Gonzalez were a British R&B and funk band. They became well known as a backing band for touring R&B, funk and soul stars. Their eponymous album was released in 1974 and they recorded a total of six albums before disbanding in 1986,...

 and issued as the followup to their 1979 hit "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" but it was not a success. The song has also been recorded by Great White

Great White

Great White is an American hard rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1978. The band gained popularity during the 1980s and early 1990s. The band released several albums in the late 1980s and gained airplay on MTV with music videos for songs like "Once Bitten, Twice Shy"...

 (Let It Rock

Let It Rock (Great White album)

Let it Rock is the eighth studio album by the American hard rock band Great White, released in 1996. It was recorded after their split with long-time manager and co-writer Alan Niven...

) and - in Swahili - by Letta Mbulu

Letta Mbulu

Letta Mbulu is a South African jazz singer born and raised in Soweto. She has been active since the 1960s, but left for the United States in 1965 due to Apartheid. In the U.S. she worked with Cannonball Adderley, David Axelrod and Harry Belafonte...

.

A Finnish rendition of the song: "Sä Tunnet Mun", was recorded by Eija Merilä.