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Roberta Flack

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Roberta Flack (Music)
''Strumming my pain with his fingers... singing my life with his words..."

Roberta Cleopatra Flack (February 10, 1937 - February 24, 2025) was a critically and popularly revered Genre-Busting singer and pianist born in North Carolina and raised in Virginia, and one of the Ur-Examples of quiet storm R&B.

Beginning her career at the tail end of The '60s, her Breakthrough Hit came in 1971 when "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," a deep cut from her debut album First Take, became a massive Sleeper Hit and Breakaway Pop Hit after being included in the Play Misty for Me soundtrack, not only topping the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks, but finishing 1972 atop the year-end Hot 100 list.

Following that, she continued to have a string of hits up and down The '70s, including "Feel Like Makin' Love," "If Ever I See You Again," "Killing Me Softly With His Song" (which remains her Signature Song and was later Covered Up by the Fugees), and several hit duets with Donny Hathaway, including "You've Got A Friend," "The Closer I Get To You" and "Where Is The Love" (not to be confused with the Black Eyed Peas song of the same name).

While the hits dried up for her in later decades, she nonetheless remained active in touring and recording well into the 21st century, ultimately retiring from touring in 2018 due to declining health and retiring from music altogether in 2022 after being diagnosed with ALS, from which she died on February 24, 2025.

She was married to jazz bassist Steve Novosel for several years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and also did the soundtrack for Bustin' Loose and sang the theme music for The Hogan Family. Her niece, Rory Flack, was a figure skater of some note in The '80s.

Discography

Tropes present in her work include:

  • Chronological Album Title: Her first two albums, First Take and Chapter Two.
  • Cover Album: Much of her later work is composed of these: her 1994 Self-Titled Album Roberta is one of various jazz and soul standards, and Friends: Roberta Flack Sings Mariko Takahashi and Let It Be Roberta: Roberta Flack Sings The Beatles are both cover albums of Mariko Takahashi songs and Beatles songs.
  • Genre-Busting: Her Signature Style was a mix of Soul, R&B, Jazz, Folk Music and Pop.
  • Let's Duet: Did two albums of duets with Donny Hathaway (the second released posthumously, as Hathaway committed suicide in 1979) and two more with Peabo Bryson (one of which was a Live Album).
  • Live Album: Two of them - Live & More (a collaboration with Peabo Bryson), and S.O.U.L., recorded on her 1985 tour.
  • Silly Love Songs: Many of her greatest hits are these, and a compilation of many of her most famous ones, Love Songs, was released in 2011.

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