Roberta Flack

Later she performed several nights a week at the 1520 Club, again providing her own piano accompaniment.

About this time her voice teacher, Frederick "Wilkie" Wilkerson, told her that he saw a brighter future for her in pop music than in the classics.

Flack modified her repertoire accordingly and her reputation spread.

Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February 10, 1937) is a retired American singer who topped the Billboard charts with the No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "Feel Like Makin' Love", "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", the latter two duets with Donny Hathaway.

Flack influenced the subgenre of contemporary R&B called quiet storm, and interpreted songs by songwriters such as Leonard Cohen and members of the Beatles.

Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, to parents Laron Flack, a Veterans Administration draftsman, and Irene (née Council) Flack a church organist, on February 10, 1937 (some sources have cited 1939 but the 1940 Census gives Roberta's age as 3 years old).

She grew up in Arlington, Virginia.

Growing up in a large, musical family, she often accompanied the choir of Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church by playing hymns and spirituals on piano, but she also enjoyed going to the "Baptist church down the street" to listen to contemporary gospel music including songs performed by Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke.

When Flack was nine, she started taking an interest in playing the piano.

During her early teens, Flack excelled at classical piano and Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship.

By age 15, she entered Howard University in Washington, D.C., 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.

Her direction of a production of Aida received a standing ovation from the Howard University faculty.

Flack became a student teacher at a school near Chevy Chase, Maryland.

She graduated from Howard University at 19 and began graduate studies in music there, but the sudden death of her father forced her to take a job teaching music and English in Farmville, North Carolina.

Before becoming a professional singer-songwriter, Flack returned to Washington, D.C., and taught at Banneker, Browne, and Rabaut Junior High Schools.

She also taught private piano lessons out of her home on Euclid Street, NW in the city.

During that time, her music career began to take shape on evenings and weekends in D.C. area night spots.

At the Tivoli Club, she accompanied opera singers at the piano.

During intermissions, she would sing blues, folk, and pop standards in a back room, accompanying herself on the piano.

In 1968 she began singing professionally when she was hired to perform regularly at Mr. Henry's Restaurant, which is on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Les McCann discovered Flack singing and playing jazz in a D.C. nightclub.

He later said on the liner notes of what would be her first album First Take noted below, "Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I've ever known. I laughed, cried, and screamed for more... she alone had the voice."

Very quickly he arranged an audition for her with Atlantic Records, during which she played 42 songs in 3 hours for producer Joel Dorn.

In November 1968, she recorded 39 song demos in less than 10 hours.

Three months later, Atlantic reportedly recorded Flack's debut album, First Take, in a mere 10 hours.

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.

Flack's cover version of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" hit number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972.

Her Atlantic recordings did not sell particularly well, until actor/director Clint Eastwood chose a song from First Take, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" written by Ewan MacColl, for the sound track of his directorial debut Play Misty for Me; it became the biggest hit of the year for 1972, spending six consecutive weeks at No. 1 and earning Flack a million-selling Gold disc.

It finished the year as Billboard's top song of 1972.

The First Take album also went to No. 1 and eventually sold 1.9 million copies in the United States.

Eastwood, who paid $2,000 for the use of the song in the film, has remained an admirer and friend of Flack's ever since.

In 1972, Flack began recording regularly with Donny Hathaway, scoring hits such as the Grammy-winning "Where Is the Love" (1972) and later "The Closer I Get to You" (1978), both million-selling gold singles.

Flack was the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in two consecutive years: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won in 1973 and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" won in 1974.

It was awarded the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1973.

Flack and Hathaway recorded several duets together, including two LPs, until Hathaway's 1979 death.

In 1983, she recorded the end music to the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact at Eastwood's request.

The film was digitally reissued on DVD and CD in 2004 but Flack declined permission for her image and recording to be included for unknown reasons.

Her a cappella performance of the traditional spiritual "Oh Freedom" retitled "Freedom Song" on the original Soul to Soul LP soundtrack is only available in the VHS version of the film.

The U.S. delegation of musical artists was invited to perform for 14th anniversary of African independence in Ghana.