Roberta Flack

1937 – 2025 (88)

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THE VOICE THAT TURNED A WHISPER INTO A CONVERSATION

She walked into a recording studio in the late 1960s with a degree from Howard University and a voice that could make any song sound like it was written for her alone. Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina in 1937, raised in Arlington, Virginia, and trained as a classical pianist before she ever sang professionally. She taught school in Washington D.C.

while singing in clubs at night, building a repertoire that jazz and folk audiences both claimed as their own. When Clint Eastwood heard her version of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, he put it in his film Play Misty for Me, and the song became a number one hit two years after its original release.

The cost was the pace and the pressure to maintain an impossibly high standard. Flack did not rush her albums. She released six studio albums in the 1970s, each polished to a level that most artists could not afford. She won four Grammys, including three consecutive Record of the Year awards -- a feat that no other artist has matched in the history of the awards. The pressure to keep delivering at that level shaped every decision she made in the studio.

Killing Me Softly with His Song is the one. The song originated as a poem by Lori Lieberman, set to music by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, and Flack's vocal captures the feeling of being seen so completely by a stranger that it aches. The Fugees covered it in 1996 and introduced the song to a new generation. Flack's influence on female R&B vocalists who came after her is enormous.

First Take (1969)

She proved that singing softly was not a weakness but a deliberate strategy, that the quietest voice in the room could be the one everyone remembered.

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Image Credits

1,414 artist portraits across 5 genres (Rock, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Folk). 1,363 sourced from Wikipedia (Creative Commons / Public Domain), 50 from Deezer (promotional artwork).

Full attribution breakdown →

Roberta Flack

1937 – 2025 (88)

← Rob Base Ronnie Laws →

THE VOICE THAT TURNED A WHISPER INTO A CONVERSATION

She walked into a recording studio in the late 1960s with a degree from Howard University and a voice that could make any song sound like it was written for her alone. Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina in 1937, raised in Arlington, Virginia, and trained as a classical pianist before she ever sang professionally. She taught school in Washington D.C.

while singing in clubs at night, building a repertoire that jazz and folk audiences both claimed as their own. When Clint Eastwood heard her version of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, he put it in his film Play Misty for Me, and the song became a number one hit two years after its original release.

The cost was the pace and the pressure to maintain an impossibly high standard. Flack did not rush her albums. She released six studio albums in the 1970s, each polished to a level that most artists could not afford. She won four Grammys, including three consecutive Record of the Year awards -- a feat that no other artist has matched in the history of the awards. The pressure to keep delivering at that level shaped every decision she made in the studio.

Killing Me Softly with His Song is the one. The song originated as a poem by Lori Lieberman, set to music by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, and Flack's vocal captures the feeling of being seen so completely by a stranger that it aches. The Fugees covered it in 1996 and introduced the song to a new generation. Flack's influence on female R&B vocalists who came after her is enormous.

First Take (1969)

She proved that singing softly was not a weakness but a deliberate strategy, that the quietest voice in the room could be the one everyone remembered.

Albums

First Take (1969)

First Take (1969)

Chapter Two (1970)

Chapter Two (1970)

Killing Me Softly (1973)

Killing Me Softly (1973)

Other Works

First Take (1969)

Chapter Two (1970)

Quiet Fire (1971)

Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway (1972)

Killing Me Softly (1973)

Feel Like Makin’ Love (1975)

Blue Lights in the Basement (1977)

Roberta Flack (1978)

Roberta Flack featuring Donny Hathaway (1979)

I’m the One (1982)

Born to Love (1983)

Oasis (1988)

Set the Night to Music (1991)

Stop the World (1992)

Roberta (1994)

The Christmas Album (1997)

Friends: Roberta Flack Sings Mariko Takahashi (1999)

Let It Be Roberta: Roberta Flack Sings the Beatles (2012)

Styles

soulr&b

Image Credits

1,414 artist portraits across 5 genres (Rock, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Folk). 1,363 sourced from Wikipedia (Creative Commons / Public Domain), 50 from Deezer (promotional artwork).

Full attribution breakdown →