Roberta Flack (1937- )

1972 was the first year that I was haunted by a song.  I think that I heard this song by Roberta Flack “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” everywhere.  She was “Killing Me Softly with His Song.”  She seems to have come out of nowhere with her song style called “quiet storm.”  She won two consecutive Grammy Awards for Record of the Year in 1973 and 1974 for these songs.  She grew up in Arlington, Virginia, in a large, musical family.  During her early teens, Roberta Flack excelled at classical piano, so that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship at age 15, making her one of the youngest students ever to enroll there.  She eventually changed her major from piano to voice and became an assistant conductor of the university choir.  She taught at many schools in Washington, D.C.  Finally, in 1968, she began singing professionally at the age of 31.  In 1971, Flack participated in the legendary Soul to Soul concert film by Denis Sanders, which was headlined by Wilson Pickett along with Ike & Tina Turner, Santana, The Staple Singers, Les McCann, Eddie Harris, The Voices of East Harlem, and others.  The film was digitally reissued on DVD and CD in 2004 but Flack declined permission for her image and recording to be included for some unknown reasons.  Clint Eastwood chose a song from her album First Take, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” that was in his movie Play Misty for Me.  Thus, it became the biggest hit of the year for 1972, spending six consecutive weeks at No. 1 and the top song of 1972.  She was also successful with “Where Is the Love” and “The Closer I Get to You.”  In the 1980s, she was successful with Burt Bacharach with “Making Love.”  In 1999, a star with Flack’s name was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Earlier in 1971, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau reported that “Flack is generally regarded as the most significant new black woman singer since Aretha Franklin, and at moments she sounds kind, intelligent, and very likable.”  Flack is a member of the Artist Empowerment Coalition, which advocates for artists to have the right to control their creative properties.  I remember her haunting voice everywhere back in 1972.  What do you know about Roberta Flack?