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Roberta Flack music biography continued...

Virginia, Flack was the daughter of a church organist and started playing piano early enough to get a music scholarship and eventual degree from Howard University. Flack then taught at schools in the Washington D.C. area while playing jazz clubs at night. She was performing at one of these clubs when she was discovered by a record executive and subsequently singed to Atlantic Records. In early 1969, Flack recorded her first album, First Take. Flack's Atlantic recordings did not sell particularly well, until Clint Eastwood chose a song from First Take, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", for the sound track of his directorial debut Play Misty for Me; it became a #1 hit in 1972 and also won the 1973 Grammy Record of the Year. "Killing Me Softly with His Song," another #1 tune, won the same award at the Grammy Awards of 1974. During this time, Flack was also recording regularly with Donny Hathaway, scoring hits such as "Where Is the Love" (1971) and later "The Closer I Get to You" (1978). Flack and Hathaway recorded several duets together, including two LPs, until Hathaway's 1979 suicide. Devastated by the loss, Flack would eventually rebound to team with Peabo Bryson, and the two sang the 1983 hit duet, "Tonight I Celebrate My Love," proving that Flack still had the musical chops necessary to chart.



Flack returned to the Top Ten once more in 1991 with "Set the Night to Music," a duet with Maxi Priest that appeared that year on the album of the same name. From 1995 - 1998, Roberta hosted a weekly radio show, "Brunch with Roberta Flack". The show presented Flack as a host with unique insights into the world of music in which she herself has been such an integral part. In 1997, she collaborated with Peabo Bryson again for the soundtrack to Disney's Beauty and the Beast. In June 1999, Roberta was selected to receive the coveted "STAR" on Hollywood's legendary Walk of Fame. Flack continues to tour internationally and devote herself to worthy causes, hoping to inspire and give back to the millions of fans that have stuck with her through the years.