''Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway'' is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter

Roberta Flack Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February 10, 1937) is a retired American singer. She topped the Billboard Magazine, ''Billboard'' charts with the No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "Feel Like M ...

. Released via

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

in March 1980, the album features posthumous vocals by close friend and collaborator

Donny Hathaway Donny Edward Hathaway (October 1, 1945 – January 13, 1979) was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, and arranger whom ''Rolling Stone'' described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include " The Ghetto", "This Christmas ...

, who had died in 1979. At the

23rd Grammy Awards The 23rd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 25, 1981, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and were broadcast live on United States, American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1980. Album of the Y ...

in 1981, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (previously called Best Rhythm and Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female) was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards ...

. The award, however, went to

Stephanie Mills Stephanie Dorthea Mills (born March 22, 1957) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to stardom as "Dorothy" in the original seven-time Tony Award winning Broadway run of the musical ''The Wiz'' from 1974 to 1979. The song " Home" from t ...

for " Never Knew Love Like This Before."

Overview

Intended as her second duets album with

(following 1972's ''

Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway The 1972 Atlantic release ''Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway'' is a million-selling duet album by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway produced by Joel Dorn and Arif Mardin. Flack and Hathaway were both solo artists on the Atlantic roster who'd enjo ...

''), Flack's ninth studio album project became a Flack solo album with Hathaway as guest due to Hathaway's death after recording only two songs with her. On 13 January 1979 Hathaway and Flack had recorded the duets "Back Together Again" and "You Are My Heaven" - the latter the last song Hathaway would ever record: after having dinner with Flack at her residence in

the Dakota The Dakota, also known as the Dakota Apartments, is a Housing cooperative, cooperative apartment building at 1 West 72nd Street (Manhattan), 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The Dakota was construc ...

, Hathaway had then returned to his suite on the fifteenth floor of Essex House, later fatally falling from the window of his suite. Despite becoming the first Roberta Flack album since '' Quiet Fire'' (1971) to not yield a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

hit, ''...Featuring Donny Hathaway'' provided Flack with a substantial commercial comeback following the underperformance of her precedent 1978 self-titled album, with ''...Featuring Donny Hathaway'' becoming a

certified Gold Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

album. Also both the duets on ''...Featuring Donny Hathaway'' reached the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

Top Ten peaking at #8, with "Back Together Again" reaching #3 in the UK: "Back Together Again" had been written by

James Mtume James Forman (January 3, 1946January 9, 2022), known professionally as Mtume or James Mtume, was an American jazz and R&B musician, songwriter, record producer, activist, and radio personality. He came to prominence as a jazz musician, working ...

and

Reggie Lucas Reginald Grant Lucas (February 25, 1953 – May 19, 2018)The Closer I Get to You "The Closer I Get to You" is a romantic ballad performed by singer-songwriter Roberta Flack and soul musician Donny Hathaway. The song was written by James Mtume and Reggie Lucas, two former members of Miles Davis's band, who were members of Flac ...

", while "You Are My Heaven" was a

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

co-write (with album producer

Eric Mercury Eric Alexander Mercury (28 June 1944 – 14 March 2022) was a Canadian singer who was a member of soul group The Soul Searchers during the 1960s. He later made waves in 1969 with his ''Electric Black Man'' album. He had two hits, the first on ...

). Wonder also contributed the song "Don't Make Me Wait Too Long", providing the track's whispered rap: issued as a third single "Don't Make Me Wait..." was not a major mainstream hit, but issued on a

12" single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

with "Back Together Again" afforded Flack her first disco chart hit single with a #6 peak. Flack has mentioned the track "Disguises" as being among her favorite lower-profile songs in her repertoire. ''...Featuring Donny Hathaway'' was also the third consecutive Roberta Flack album on which she sang a composition by

Michael Masser Michael William Masser (March 24, 1941 – July 9, 2015) was an American songwriter, composer and producer of popular music. Early life Born to a Jewish family in Chicago to Ester Huff and William Masser, he attended the University of Illinois ...

, who in 1983 would write (with

Gerry Goffin Gerald Goffin (February 11, 1939 – June 19, 2014) was an American lyricist. Collaborating initially with his first wife, Carole King, he co-wrote many international pop hits of the early and mid-1960s, including the List of Billboard number-one ...

) and produce "

Tonight, I Celebrate My Love "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" is a romantic ballad written by lyricist Gerry Goffin with Michael Masser and recorded by Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack for their 1983 album of duets, '' Born to Love'', issued as the lead single. The track—produ ...

" the million-selling

Peabo Bryson Robert Peapo "Peabo" Bryson (born April 13, 1951) is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for singing soul ballads (often as a duet with female singers) including the 1983 hit "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" with Roberta Flack. Bryson ...

duet which would be Flack's most successful post-1970s release.

Track listing

Side One

#"Only Heaven Can Wait (For Love)" (Flack,

) - 4:03 #"God Don't Like Ugly" (

Gwen Guthrie Gwendolyn Guthrie (July 9, 1950 – February 3, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter and pianist who also sang backing vocals for Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Peter Tosh, and Madonna, among others, and who wrote songs made fa ...

) - 4:34 #"You Are My Heaven" (Eric Mercury,

) - 4:10 #"Disguises" (

Stuart Scharf Stuart Scharf (1941 – November 8, 2007) was an American composer, guitarist, and record producer. Scharf grew up in Crown Heights and attended Winthrop Junior High School. Scharf graduated, with honors, from CCNY in 1962 (mathematics majo ...

) - 2:24

Side Two

#"Don't Make Me Wait Too Long" (Stevie Wonder) - 7:45 #"Back Together Again" (

Reggie Lucas Reginald Grant Lucas (February 25, 1953 – May 19, 2018)James Mtume James Forman (January 3, 1946January 9, 2022), known professionally as Mtume or James Mtume, was an American jazz and R&B musician, songwriter, record producer, activist, and radio personality. He came to prominence as a jazz musician, working ...

) - 9:45 #"Stay with Me" (

) - 3:47

Personnel

* Roberta Flack – lead and backing vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, arrangements (1, 2, 4) *

Ray Chew Ray Chew is an American musician who specializes in keyboards and contemporary and orchestral arranging. He is the music director of ABC's Dancing with the Stars (2014–present). Chew was music director for Fox's American Idol from 2010 to 20 ...

– keyboards, additional horns and strings (6) *

Hubert Eaves III Hubert Eaves III is a keyboardist, songwriter and record producer. In the early 1980s, he worked on hits by the dance act D-Train. He also did session work with Mtume. Biography Eaves was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was taught piano ...

– synthesizers *

Ronnie Foster Ronnie Foster (born May 12, 1950) is an American funk and soul jazz organist, and record producer. His albums recorded for Blue Note Records in the 1970s have gained a cult following after the emergence of acid jazz. Early life Foster was born ...

– synthesizers * Paul Griffin – keyboards * Raymond Jones – keyboards * Ed Walsh – synthesizers * Harry Whitaker – keyboards *

– keyboards (6), drums (6), backing vocals (6) *

Hiram Bullock Hiram Law Bullock (September 11, 1955 – July 25, 2008) was an American guitarist known mainly for playing in jazz funk and jazz fusion, but he also worked as a session musician in a variety of genres. Biography Bullock was born in Osaka, Jap ...

– guitar *

Reggie Lucas Reginald Grant Lucas (February 25, 1953 – May 19, 2018)John Tropea John Tropea (pronounced 'tro-pay'; born January 7, 1946) is an American guitarist. Career Tropea began guitar studies at the age of 12. His musical education continued at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied jazz guitar, harmony, ...

– guitar * Eluriel "Tinker" Barfield – bass * Basil Fearrington – bass * Anthony Jackson – bass *

Nathan Watts Nathan or Natan may refer to: People *Nathan (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name *Nathan (surname) *Nathan (prophet), a person in the Hebrew Bible *Nathan (son of David), biblical figure, son of King David and ...

– bass (5) * Howard King – drums (1-5, 7) * Errol "Crusher" Bennett – percussion * Armando Noriega – string arrangements (1, 7) *

Arif Mardin Arif Mardin (March 15, 1932 – June 25, 2006) was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco and country. He worked at Atlantic Records for ov ...

– basic track arrangements (3, 7) *

Paul Riser Paul Riser (born September 11, 1943) is an American trombonist and Motown musical arranger who was responsible for co-writing and arranging dozens of top ten hit records. His legacy as one of the "Funk Brothers" is similar to that of most of the ...

– string arrangements (5) *

– arrangements (6) *

– backing vocals (1) *

Jocelyn Brown Jocelyn Lorette Brown (born November 25, 1950), sometimes credited as Jocelyn Shaw, is an American R&B and dance singer. Although she has only one ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart entry solely in her name, she has an extensive background in the musi ...

– backing vocals (2, 6) *

– backing vocals (2, 6), BGV arrangements (2, 6) * Yvonne Lewis – backing vocals (2, 6) * Merle Miller – backing vocals (2, 6) *

Luther Vandross Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Known for his sweet and soulful vocals, Vandross has sold over 40 million records worldwide. He achieved eleven consecutive P ...

– backing vocals (2, 6), BGV arrangements (2, 6) * Brenda White-King – backing vocals (2, 6) * Revelation – backing vocals (2, 6) *

– lead vocals (3, 6) * Eleanore Mills – backing vocals (3)

Production

* Roberta Flack – producer (1, 2, 4-7), basic track producer (3), vocal producer (3) * Eric Mercury – producer (1, 2, 4-7) * Joe Ferla – co-producer (1, 4) * Arif Mardin – basic track producer (3), vocal producer (3) * Howie Lindeman – engineer * Joe Lopes – assistant engineer * Pat Martin – assistant engineer * Paul Northfield – assistant engineer * Gary Olazabal – assistant engineer * Bobby Warner – assistant engineer * Jack Adelman – mastering * Hélène Guertary – cover illustration

External links

References

{{Authority control Roberta Flack albums Donny Hathaway albums 1979 albums Atlantic Records albums Disco albums by American artists Collaborative albums