Godspeed Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack, best known for her hits "The First Tine Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly with His Song," died on February 24 2025 at the age of 88. She in November she revealed that she had been diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Roberta Flack had been born on February 10 1937 in Black Mountain, North Carolina. She grew up in Arlington, Virginia. She came from a musical family, and she learned to play piano while she was still young. She was only 13 years old when she played the complete Handel's "Messiah" for her church choir. She attended Stevens Elementary School in Washington, DC and Hoffman-Boston High School in Arlington. She was only 15 when she won a full musical scholarship to Howard University.

When her father died when she was 19, Roberta Flack left graduate school at Howard University to take a job as a teacher in Farmville, North Carolina. She taught music as a side hustle, and sang at various nightclubs. It was at Mr. Henry's in Washington, DC that she was discovered by y jazz great Les McCann in 1968. She was signed to Atlantic Records.

Her first single "Compared to What" was released in 1969. The same year her debut album, First Take, was released. Her debut album proved to be a hit, going to the top of the Billboard chart. Her early albums did very well, Chapter Two going  to no. 33 on the charts and Quiet Fire peaking at no. 18. Her first hit single was a cover of Carole King's "You've Got a Friend," which went to no. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It was after her cover of Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" was used in the movie Play Misty for Me (1971) that the song proved to be her first major hit. It went all the way to no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was not new when it became a hit single. It had appeared on Roberta Flack's first album, First Take, in 1969. It would be followed by "Where is the Love," a song with Donny Hathaway that went to no. 5 on the chart. This was followed by her second no. 1 hit, "Killing Me Softly with His Song." Originally recorded by Lori Lieberman, Roberta Flack's version proved to be a major hit. Later in the decade Roberta Flack would have another hit with Donny Hathaway, "The Closer I Get to You."

Following the Seventies Roberta Flack's hit songs would be more sporadic. "Making Love"peaked at no. 13 in 1982. In 1983 "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" went to no. 16. In 1991 "Set the Night to Music" made it to no. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her last single was a previously unreleased 1971 cover of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," released in 2021. She continued to release albums into the 21st Century, the last being Let It Be Roberta: Roberta Flack Sings the Beatles.

Roberta Flack received several accolades throughout her career. Because of the awards for "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" she became the first artist to win the Grammy for Record of the Year in consecutive years .

It can be said that Roberta Flack's songs defied classification. They were not easily pigeonholed into any one category. They blended elements of jazz, rhythm and blues, and pop into something that was wholly unique. All of this was made possible by one of the warmest, most soulful voices in popular music at the time. With that voice she delivered her songs as if she was singing to the individual listener. Of course, here it must be pointed out that Miss Flack was not merely a singer of romantic songs, as she also dealt with Black empowerment and humanity in general. In the end Roberta Flack was one of the most powerful, most moving singers of the later half of the 20th Century.