Roberta Flack
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| Roberta Flack | |
|---|---|
 Roberta Flack in concert in 1992 |
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| Background information | |
| Born | February 10, 1939 |
| Origin | Black Mountain, North Carolina, United States |
| Genres | Jazz, soul, folk, R&B |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Labels | Atlantic (1968-1996) Angel / Capitol (1997) RAS / 429 / Sony/ATV (2011-present) |
| Associated acts | Donny Hathaway Peabo Bryson Maxi Priest |
| Website | www.robertaflack.com |
Roberta Flack (born February 10, 1939) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music. Roberta Flack is 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.[1] She and U2 are the only artists to win the award in consecutive years.
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[edit] Biography
Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina and was raised in Arlington, Virginia.[2] 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.
During her early teens, Flack so excelled at classical piano that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship.[3] She entered Howard University at the age of 15, 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 African-American 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 then 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.
When Roberta Flack did a benefit concert for the Inner City Ghetto Children's Library Fund, Les McCann happened to be in the audience. 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.[2] 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."
Roberta 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 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.[4] 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,[5] 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.[2]
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.[4] 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.[6] 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.
Flack and Hathaway recorded several duets together, including two LPs, until Hathaway's 1979 death.
[edit] 1980s-present
Roberta Flack had a 1982 hit single with "Making Love" (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.
In 1999, a star with Flack's name was placed on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.[3] 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.
Roberta Flack is a member of the Artist Empowerment Coalition, which advocates the right of artists to control their creative properties.
Roberta Flack 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.[7]
Roberta Flack is the aunt of the professional ice skater Rory Flack Burghart.
In February 2012, Roberta Flack is set to release Let it Be Roberta, an album of Beatles covers including "Hey Jude" and "Let it Be". It is her first recording in over 8 years. [8] Flack knew John Lennon and Yoko Ono personally as they both 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. [9]
[edit] References in Media
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.[10]
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, and it has become one of the favourites of Sandy's fans.
In the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "My Lovely Man", on the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Anthony Kiedis sings "I listen to Roberta Flack, but I know you won't come back."
[edit] Awards
[edit] Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Flack has received four awards from thirteen nominations.[11]
| Year | Nominated work | 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 |
[edit] American Music Awards
The American Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony created by Dick Clark in 1973. Flack has received one award from six nominations.
| Year | Nominated work | 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) | Nominated |
[edit] Discography
[edit] References
- ^ Hobart Citysearch
- ^ a b c allmusic Biography
- ^ a b Roberta Flack biography
- ^ a b Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 312. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
- ^ McGillagan (1999), p.194
- ^ Pond, Steve (12 June 1997). "Singer's Career Was Softly Killed By Bad Luck And Insecurity". The Deseret News. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HJkRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mOwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6439,71042. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
- ^ Robertaflack.com
- ^ "Roberta Flack Gearing Up for Release of New Album "LET IT BE ROBERTA: ROBERTA FLACK SINGS THE BEATLES," an Album of Beatles' Classics". Yahoo! Finance. 1/17/2012. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/roberta-flack-gearing-release-album-181300098.html.
- ^ "NPR Music". http://www.npr.org/2012/02/18/146942636/roberta-flacks-long-and-winding-road.
- ^ http://www.discogs.com/Flying-Lotus-Los-Angeles/master/39640
- ^ Roberta Flack Grammy Awards
[edit] Bibliography
- McGilligan, Patrick (1999). Clint: The Life and Legend. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-638354-8..
[edit] External links
- Official web site
- Roberta Flack at the Internet Movie Database
- Roberta Flack at Allmusic
- Peter Reilly's review of Quiet Fire
- Roberta Flack at Wenig-Lamonica Associates
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- 1937 births
- Living people
- Baptists from the United States
- People from Black Mountain, North Carolina
- American female singers
- Schoolteachers
- American singer-songwriters
- African American female singers
- African American singers
- American soul musicians
- American dance musicians
- American pop singers
- American rhythm and blues singers
- Grammy Award winners
- Howard University alumni
- Atlantic Records artists
