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Roberta Flack Bio
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Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack was born on February 10, 1937 in Asheville, North Carolina. She was the daughter of a church organist and learned to play the piano at a very young age. After graduating high school, Flack attended Howard University on a music scholarship where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Music. Following college, Flack briefly worked as a student teacher for both music and English in North Carolina and Maryland. She was then discovered while singing at a club by jazz musician Les McCann.
Her road to becoming a successful singer and performer was a long one. She began her recording career with Atlantic Records, where some of her earliest recordings went unnoticed until years later. One of the first songs she recorded, “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face” was recorded in 1969 and was included on the soundtrack for Play Misty for Me (1972), directed by Clint Eastwood who was a close friend of Roberta’s. With the help of the success of the film, Flack’s single hit number one on the Billboard charts and stayed there for six weeks. They collaborated for a second time in 1983, on the soundtrack of Eastwood’s film Sudden Impact.
Flack then began working with Donny Hathaway, who was a fellow classmate at Howard University, in 1973. Later that year, they recorded Flack’s second number one single, “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” This became one of Flack’s best known songs earning her a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1974. The success of the song caused her album to reach Gold status. The single was also covered by the Fugees in 1996.
By the mid-1970’s, Flack decided to take a break from touring, instead choosing to concentrate on recording and working with charitable organizations. Roberta continued to work with Hathaway until his suicide in 1979.
Following Hathaway’s death, Roberta began working Peabo Bryson. She continued to unleash successful singles throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Some of her more successful songs include “Tonight I Celebrate My Love” (1983), “You’re Looking Like Love to Me”, “I Just Came Here to Dance”, and “Set the Night to Music” (1991). Roberta also sang the theme song for the TV series, The Hogan Family (1986) which aired on NBC for six seasons. Roberta also toured often in the 1980s, including several times with legendary jazz musician Miles Davis. Her most recent album was simply entitled Roberta and was released in 1995. The album includes both jazz and popular music standards. |
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