The pop/R&B legend, the vocalist Roberta Flack,
who reached stardom in the early ’70s thanks her hits "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly With
His Song," has died, according to a statement from her representant. No cause of
death was cited; Roberta was 88.
“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this
morning, February 24, 2025,” the statement reads. “She died peacefully
surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was
also a proud educator.”
The classically trained singer-pianist only belatedly found fame when
Clint Eastwood employed her 2-year-old version of "The First Time Ever I
Saw Your Face" in his 1971 directorial debut "Play Misty for Me."
That No. 1 pop was succeeded by a second chart-topper, 1973’s "Killing Me Softly." Both performances were acknowledged in back-to-back
years with Grammys as record of the year – somehthing that wasn't
duplicated until U2 captured the same award in 2001-02.
She reached her peak with the 1974 pop and R&B smash "Where Is the Love," which claimed the apex of both charts. In all, her, slow-burning style brought her six top-10 pop
hits and 10 top-10 R&B singles, some of them in partnership with
vocalist Donny Hathaway.
Roberta Flack
was, in many ways, the perfect soul act of the early '70s. Her pretty,
sensuous ballads appealed to the Burt Bacharach/5th Dimension crowd,
while her shimmering keyboards and flawless diction made her the poster
child of the penthouse soul crowd. Even though her chart presence faded at the close of the '70s, Flack
continued to record into the new millennium; her last album, the Beatles
recital “Let It Be Roberta,” was released in 2012.
Born to a musical family in Black Mountain, N.C., Flack was inspired as
a girl by the gospel work of Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke. He began
studying piano at the age of 9; something of a musical prodigy, she
entered Howard University in Washington, D.C., at 15 on a full
scholarship.
Her graduate work was cut short by her father's death, and she taught
school in North Carolina and the District of Columbia. She also began
work as a nightspot performer in D.C.; a fateful engagement at the club
Mr. Henry's was attended by jazz pianist Les McCann, then a crossover
star at Atlantic Records. McCann brought Flack to the attention of the
label, which signed her in 1968.
Then in 1969, her Joel Dorn-produced debut "First Take" didn’t
catch fire. However, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Fac" — a ballad
composed by English folksinger Ewan MacColl and cut by the American
folk-pop act the Kingston Trio in 1962 — supplied popular liftoff for
Flack after Eastwood used it behind a love scene in his thriller "Play
Misty for Me."
Flack had already garnered a No. 8 R&B hit with her version of
James Taylor’s "You've Got a Friend," but "The First Time" became a No. 1
pop ubiquity, and pushed "First Take" to No. 1 for five weeks. In
January 1973, it collected the record of the year Grammy.
Almost simultaneously, "Where Is the Love," was Flack’s second pairing with
the similarly subdued and sensuous soul singer Hathaway, reached No. 1
on the R&B chart and No. 5 on the pop list. Flack reached the height of her popularity among both the public and
her peers with "Killing Me Softly." Penned by Charles Fox and Norman
Gimbel, the number was inspired by singer Lori Lieberman’s reaction to a
performance by pop folkie Don McLean. Lieberman's 1971 recording of the
tune failed to chart, but Flack quickly recorded it after hearing it
during an airline flight to New York.
Produced by Dorn, Flack’' lustrous version shot to No. 1 on the pop
chart and No. 2 on the R&B charts in early 1973; the "Killing Me
Softly" album peaked at No. 3 and went double platinum. The song was
named record of the year and best female pop vocal performance at the
1974 Grammys ceremony, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in
1999. The Fugees' 1996 cover, featuring vocals by future Grammy winner
Lauryn Hill, was also a No. 1 R&B hit.
Flack continued to log chart hits through the '70s, topping herself
with the double-barreled pop and R&B No. 1 single "Feel Like Making
Love" in 1974. She also notched another chart-topping pop single, "The
Closer I Get to You," with Hathaway in 1978.
However, that teaming was tragically sundered by Hathaway's suicide in
January 1979; the duet "Back Together Again," issued posthumously in
1980, reached No. 8. Her subsequent pairing with vocalist Peabo Bryson
yielded a No. 5 R&B single, "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love," in 1983.
Flack's adult contemporary-oriented sound waned in popularity in the
late '70s, as listeners increasingly gravitated to the harder sounds of
funk, rap and hip-hop. Her final top-10 album, "Blue Lights in the
Basement" No. 8, was issued in 1978. Her last major pop singles were
the Burt Bacharach-penned movie theme "Making Love" was No. 13, 1982 and "Set the Night to Music," a fantastic duet with reggae singer Maxi Priest was No. 6,
1991.
Nominated a total of 13 times, she received her last Grammy nod in
1995, for best traditional pop vocal performance, for "Roberta," on
which she essayed the standard songbook. Flack, who was divorced from Stephen Novosel in 1972, was predeceased by her son Bernard Wright, who died in 2022.