Roberta Flack

From Howard University to Atlantic

Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born on February 10, 1937 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and her family moved to Arlington, Virginia when she was five. Her father was a jazz pianist and her mother a church organist and music teacher. She entered Howard University in 1952 at fifteen and graduated at nineteen, then taught school in North Carolina and Washington while playing clubs. In 1968 she began professional singing at Mr. Henry's on Capitol Hill, and was signed to Atlantic after an audition arranged by Les McCann.

First Take was recorded on February 24 to 26, 1969 at Atlantic Studios in New York, produced by Joel Dorn, and released on June 20, 1969, 46:08. Pitchfork's Elizabeth Nelson described it as recorded over a period of just ten hours. After Clint Eastwood used "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" in Play Misty for Me (1971), the album reached number one on the Billboard 200 and the R&B albums chart in 1972; it went platinum. AllMusic's John Bush gave it five stars, saying it introduced a singer who had assimilated the powerful interpretative talents of Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan, and Rolling Stone's Julius Lester called it one of those rare albums that has the power to enlighten the emotional content of one's life. Rolling Stone placed it 451st among its 500 greatest albums in 2020.

The hits and the later years

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" was number one for six weeks in 1972 and the top song of the year. She made a duet album with Donny Hathaway in 1972, and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" (1973) and "Feel Like Makin' Love" (1974, produced by her under the name Rubina Flake) both reached number one. Wikipedia and news reports say she was the first artist to win Record of the Year two years running, in 1973 and 1974. She completed a second Hathaway duet album after his death in 1979, worked with Peabo Bryson on Born to Love (1983), and had a number 6 hit in 1991 with Maxi Priest on "Set the Night to Music". She sang at the 1971 Soul to Soul festival in Ghana, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999 and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in 2020, and is credited with helping establish the quiet storm radio format. The PBS documentary American Masters: Roberta Flack aired on January 24, 2023. She died on February 24, 2025, aged 88, and was selected for the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame that year.