Roberta Flack (born February 10, 1937 or 1939) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music. Flack may be best known for her Hot 100 #1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love", as well as "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won the 1973 Grammy Record of the Year and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" won the same award at the Grammy Awards of 1974. She and U2 are the only...read moreRoberta Flack (born February 10, 1937 or 1939) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music. Flack may be best known for her Hot 100 #1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love", as well as "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won the 1973 Grammy Record of the Year and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" won the same award at the Grammy Awards of 1974. She and U2 are the only artists to win the award in consecutive years.
Early life edit:
Flack lived with a musical family, born in Black Mountain, North Carolina to parents Laron LeRoy (October 11, 1911-July 12, 1959) and Irene Flack (September 28, 1911-January 17, 1981) a church organist, on February 10, 1939 (1937 according to some sources) and raised in Arlington, Virginia. She first discovered the work of African American musical artists when she heard Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke sing in a predominantly African-American Baptist church.
When Flack was 9, she started having interest in playing the piano, and during her early teens, Flack so excelled at classical piano that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship. By age 15, she entered Howard University, making her one of the youngest students ever to enroll there. She eventually changed her major from piano to voice, and became an assistant conductor of the university choir. Her direction of a production of Aida received a standing ovation from the Howard University faculty. Flack is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and was made an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma by the Eta Delta Chapter at Howard University for her outstanding work in promoting music education.
Roberta Flack became the first black student teacher at an all-Caucasian school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. She graduated from Howard University at 19 and began graduate studies in music, but the sudden death of her father forced her to take a job teaching music and English for $2800 a year in Farmville, North Carolina.
Career edit:
Early career edit:
Before becoming a professional singer-songwriter, Flack taught school in Washington, D.C. at Browne Junior High and Rabaut Junior High. She also taught private piano lessons out of her home on Euclid St. NW. During this period, her music career began to take shape on evenings and weekends in Washington, D.C. area night spots. At the Tivoli Club, she accompanied opera singers at the piano. During intermissions, she would sing blues, folk, and pop standards in a back room, accompanying herself on the piano. Later, she performed several nights a week at the 1520 Club, again providing her own piano accompaniment. Around this time, her voice teacher, Frederick "Wilkie" Wilkerson, told her that he saw a brighter future for her in pop music than in the classics. She modified her repertoire accordingly and her reputation spread.
1970s edit:
Les McCann discovered Flack singing and playing jazz in a Washington nightclub. 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 Roberta's debut album, First Take, in a mere 10 hours. 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."
Flack's version of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" hit number seventy-six 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", 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. 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, 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.
Roberta Flack soon began recording regularly with Donny Hathaway, scoring hits such as the Grammy-winning "Where Is the Love" (1972) and later "The Closer I Get to You" (1978) - both million-selling gold singles. On her own, Flack scored her second #1 hit in 1973, "Killing Me Softly with His Song" written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, and originally performed by Lori Lieberman.
It was awarded both Record Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the 1974 Grammy Awards. Its parent album was Flack's biggest-selling disc, eventually earning Double Platinum certification. 1974 also saw Flack sing the lead on a Sherman Brothers song called "Freedom", which featured prominently at the opening and closing of the movie Huckleberry Finn. Flack and Hathaway recorded several duets together, including two LPs, until Hathaway's 1979 death.
1980s edit:
Roberta Flack had a 1982 hit single with "Making Love", written by Burt Bacharach (the title track of the 1982 film of the same name), which reached #13. She began working with Peabo Bryson with more limited success, charting as high as #5 on the R&B chart (plus #16 Pop and #4 Adult Contemporary) with "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" in 1983. Her next two singles with Bryson, "You're Looking Like Love To Me" and "I Just Came Here To Dance," fared better on adult contemporary (AC) radio than on pop or R&B radio.
In 1986, Flack sang the theme song entitled "Together Through the Years" for the NBC television series, Valerie later known as The Hogan Family. The song was used throughout the show's six seasons. Oasis was released in 1988 and failed to make an impact with pop audiences, though the title track reached #1 on the R&B chart and a remix of "Uh-Uh Ooh-Ooh Look Out (Here It Comes)" topped the dance chart in 1989. Flack found herself again in the US Top 10 with the hit song "Set the Night to Music", a 1991 duet with Jamaican vocalist Maxi Priest that peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and #2 AC. Flack's smooth R&B sound lent itself easily to Easy Listening airplay during the 1970s, and she has had four #1 AC hits.
Later career edit:
In 1999, a star with Flack's name was placed on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. That same year, she gave a concert tour in South Africa, to which the final performance was attended by President Nelson Mandela. In 2010, she appeared on the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, singing a duet of "Where Is The Love" with Maxwell.
In February 2012, Flack released Let it Be Roberta, an album of Beatles covers including "Hey Jude" and "Let it Be". It is her first recording in over eight years. Flack knew John Lennon and Yoko Ono, as both households moved in 1975 into the The Dakota apartment building in New York City, and had apartments across the hall from each other. Flack has stated that she has already been asked to do a second album of Beatles covers.
Personal life edit:
Flack is a member of the Artist Empowerment Coalition, which advocates the right of artists to control their creative properties. She is also a spokesperson for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; her appearance in commercials for the ASPCA featured "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". In the Bronx section of New York City, the Hyde Leadership Chart School's after-school music program is called "The Roberta Flack School of Music" and is in partnership with Flack, who founded the school, which provides free music education to underprivileged students.
Between 1966 to 1972, she was married to Stephen Novosel. Flack is the aunt of the professional ice skater Rory Flack Burghart.
According to a DNA analysis, she descended, mainly, from people of Cameroon.
Pop Culture edit:
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. (May 2012)
Her collaboration with Donny Hathaway is mentioned in the song "What A Catch, Donnie" on Fall Out Boy's fifth studio album, Folie à Deux.
American experimental producer Flying Lotus had a song named after her ("RobertaFlack") on his Los Angeles album.
In 1991, Hong Kong singer Sandy Lam recorded a covered version of "And So It Goes" called "微涼" in the album 夢了、瘋了、倦了. Although it was not officially promoted by the record company, it was played by many DJs.
In the Red Hot Chili Peppers' song "My Lovely Man", on the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Anthony Kiedis sang "I listen to Roberta Flack, but I know you won't come back."
Accolades edit:
Flack was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
Grammy Awards edit:
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Flack has received four awards from thirteen nominations.
Year
Recipient
Award
Result
1972
"You've Got a Friend" (with Donny Hathaway)
Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group
Nominated
1973
"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"
Record of the Year
Won
Quiet Fire
Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female
Nominated
"Where Is the Love" (with Donny Hathaway)
Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus
Won
1974
Killing Me Softly
Album of the Year
Nominated
"Killing Me Softly with His Song"
Record of the Year
Won
Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female
Won
1975
"Feel Like Makin' Love"
Record of the Year
Nominated
Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female
Nominated
1979
"The Closer I Get to You" (with Donny Hathaway)
Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group
Nominated
1981
Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway
Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female
Nominated
"Back Together Again" (with Donny Hathaway)
Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
Nominated
1995
Roberta
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance
Nominated
American Music Awards edit:
The American Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony created by Dick Clark in 1973. Flack has received one award from six nominations.
Year
Recipient
Award
Result
1974
Favorite Female Artist (Pop/Rock)
Nominated
Favorite Female Artist (Soul/R&B)
Won
"Killing Me Softly with His Song"
Favorite Single (Pop/Rock)
Nominated
1975
Favorite Female Artist (Soul/R&B)
Nominated
"Feel Like Makin' Love"
Favorite Single (Soul/R&B)
Nominated
1979
Favorite Female Artist (Soul/R&B)
Nominatedread less
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