What Happened? Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack was born on February 10, 1939 (1937 according to some sources) and was raised in Arlington, Flack 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.

Roberta Flack taught school for years in Washington, DC 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. Subsequently, a Capitol Hill night club called Mr. Henry's built a performance area especially for her.

 Les McCann discovered Flack singing and playing jazz in a Washington nightclub.  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.

Atlantic Records released First Take in 1969 to little fanfare.

Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway's version of "You’ve Got A Friend" hit number twenty-four on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. It was her first song to chart. She had released three albums by this time: Frist Take, Second Chapter & Quiet Fire.

Her Atlantic recordings did not sell particularly well, until Clint Eastwood chose a song from First Take, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", for the soundtrack 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.

In 1973, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was awarded the Grammy Award for Record Of The Year.

Roberta Flack began recording regularly with Donny Hathaway, scoring hits such as the Grammy-winning "Where Is the Love" (1972). She received her second Grammy for this song and her first R&B/soul number #1.

On her own, Flack scored her second #1 hit in 1973, "Killing Me Softly with His Song" written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. 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.

In 1974 Roberta Flack scored another number one hit with “Feel Like Making Love” from the album of the same title. It became her third Record of the year nomination and her second win in that category.

1977 Roberta return with “Blue Light In The Basement”, the biggest song from the album “Closer I Get To You” scored her third R&B/soul number one single.

In 1978 Roberta Flack released her self-entitled disc.

In 1980 Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway is Roberta Flack's ninth album. It was intended as the second duets album to feature Donny Hathaway and her. Hathaway only recorded two songs ("You Are My Heaven" and "Back Together Again") for this album before his suicide. Flack finished the rest of the record on her own.

Also in 1980 Roberta flack released her first live album “Live & More with Peabo Bryson. The two disc album also featured Peabo Bryson biggest hits “Feel the Fire & Reaching For The Sky”

In 1981 Roberta Flack released a greatest hit set and the soundtrack to the movie “Busting Loose” which starred Richard Pryor.

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 which was included on I’m The One Album.

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. All song from the duet album with Peabo Bryson Born To Love.

In 1983, she recorded the end music to the Dirty Harry film “Sudden Impact” at Eastwood's request.

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.

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.

In the Bronx section of New York City, the Hyde Leadership Charter 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.