Singer Roberta Flack has died aged 88. Her career hit a high in the 1970s with hits including The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Killing Me Softly With His Song, Where is the Love, and Feel like Making Love.
The hits continued into the 1980s when she teamed up with Peabo Bryson for Tonight, I Celebrate My Love for You and collaborated with Maxi Priest on Set the Night to Music.
Flack retained a strong following and was noted for her ability to interpret the works of well-known writers such as Leonard Cohen, Lennon and McCartney and Prince.
Flack was born in North Carolina in 1937 and first began singing gospel music in her local church as a child. As a child she began studying the piano and later received a full scholarship to study piano at university.
She became a music teacher in Washington DC, and began to work in clubs in the evenings. At the Tivoli club she played piano for opera singers in the front room but would then head to the venue’s backroom during intermissions to play blues, folk and soul music.
Jazz legend Les McCann saw her playing a jazz show and arranged for her to audition for Atlantic Records. Her debut album First Take was reportedly recorded in just 10 hours, Rolling Stone magazine later listed it as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
While the album was recorded it 1969 it wasn’t until three years later that her take on Ewan MacColl song The First Time Ever I Saw Her Face really look off. It was after actor and director Clint Eastwood included her recording in his movie Play Misty for Me, that the recording gained popularity. In 1972 it spent six weeks in the number one slot of the US Billboard charts.
The same year Flack made several recordings with soul singer Donny Hathaway. Where is the Love and The Closer I Get to You were both big sellers.
In 1973 she recorded her signature tune Killing Me Softy With His Song. It won the Grammy for Record of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The song would become a chart hit a second time in the 1990s when the Fugees released a cover.
A third number one hit came in 1974 with the more upbeat Feel Like Making Love. A song that has subsequently been covered by British Electric Foundation, George Benson, D’Angelo, Marlena Shaw, Roy Ayres and many others.
In 1982 Flack had another hit with the theme song to the film Making Love, which told the story of a married man who realises he’s bisexual. The groundbreaking film for its time starred Harry Hamlin, Kate Jackson and Michael Ontkean.
The hits continued through the 1980s as she teamed up for duets with Peabo Bryson and UK singer Maxi Priest.
Outside her work as a recording artist, Flack also championed the power of music and founded a program that provided free music education to underprivileged communities. She also championed gay rights and marriage equality.
“Love is love. Between a man and a woman, between two men, between two women. Love is universal, like music.” she once said.
