Roberta Flack & Donnie Hathaway were like wine and romance never mixed before. Such a wonderful musical texture captured that still touches the hearts of listeners. A favorite Donnie Hathaway arrangement was the live “groove” version of “What’s goin’ on”.

Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February 10, 1937)^[2][3] is an American singer. She is known for her No. 1 singles “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face“, “Killing Me Softly with His Song“, “Feel Like Makin’ Love“; and “Where Is the Love” and “The Closer I Get to You“, two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway.

Flack was the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in two consecutive years: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” won in 1973 and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” won in 1974. Only U2 and Billie Eilish have repeated this feat.

1970s

Flack in 1971

Les McCann discovered Flack singing and playing jazz in a Washington nightclub.^[6] He later said on the liner notes of what would be her first album First Take noted below, “Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known. I laughed, cried, and screamed for more…she alone had the voice.” Very quickly, he arranged an audition for her with Atlantic Records, during which she played 42 songs in 3 hours for producer Joel Dorn. In November 1968, she recorded 39 song demos in less than 10 hours. Three months later, Atlantic reportedly recorded Flack’s debut album, First Take, in a mere 10 hours.^[11] Flack later spoke of those studio sessions as a “very naive and beautiful approach… I was comfortable with the music because I had worked on all these songs for all the years I had worked at Mr. Henry’s.”

In 1971, Flack participated in the legendary Soul to Soul concert film by Denis Sanders, which was headlined by Wilson Pickett, along with Ike & Tina Turner, Santana, The Staple Singers, Les McCann, Eddie Harris, The Voices of Harlem, and others. The U.S. delegation of musical artists was invited to perform for 14th anniversary of African independence in Ghana.^[17] The film was digitally reissued on DVD and CD in 2004 but Flack declined permission for her image and recording to be included for unknown reasons. Her a cappella performance of the traditional spiritual “Oh Freedom” retitled “Freedom Song” on the original Soul to Soul LP soundtrack is only available in the VHS version of the film.^[18]

Flack’s cover version of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” hit number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. Her Atlantic recordings did not sell particularly well, until actor/director Clint Eastwood chose a song from First Take, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” written by Ewan MacColl, for the sound track of his directorial debut Play Misty for Me; it became the biggest hit of the year for 1972, spending six consecutive weeks at #1 and earning Flack a million-selling Gold disc.^[19] It finished the year as Billboard‘s top song of 1972. The First Take album also went to #1 and eventually sold 1.9 million copies in the United States. Eastwood, who paid $2,000 for the use of the song in the film,^[20] has remained an admirer and friend of Flack’s ever since. It was awarded the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1973. In 1983, she recorded the end music to the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact at Eastwood’s request.^[11]

Read more about the wonderful music of Roberta Flack on Wikipedia