Happy Anniversary: Roberta Flack featuring Donny Hathaway

35 years ago today, Roberta Flack released an album which – given its title – you’d think was an album’s worth of duets with Donny Hathaway, but it isn’t. There are a couple, yes, but the reason it isn’t filled with them from start to finish…well, that’s a sad tale, to be sure.

The album entitled Roberta Flack featuring Donny Hathaway was, as you’d expect, intended to be a sequel to the 1972 collaboration between the two R&B singers, an effort which earned the duo a #1 R&B hit (“Where Is the Love”), a top-10 R&B hit (“You’ve Got a Friend”), and an additional top-30 R&B hit (“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’”). The two had known each other since attending Howard University together, creating a comfort level which was evident when they were singing together, but Hathaway’s struggle with depression – later diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia – led to estrangement between him and Flack at various points during their careers. It wasn’t until 1978 that they recorded together again, but given the success of the end result, “The Closer I Get to You,” they decided to take another shot at recording a full album.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. After completing only two tracks, both of which had incredibly ironic titles (“You Are My Heaven,” written by Eric Mercury and Stevie Wonder,” and “Back Together Again,” composed by Reggie Lucas and James Mtume), Hathaway died after falling from the window in his room on the 15th floor of the Essex House hotel in New York, with his death ruled a suicide by investigators.

Given their original plans, Flack chose to remember her late friend and collaborator by giving it a title which paid equal tribute to Hathaway, but for those who don’t know his tragic story, it often causes confusion among those who’ve discovered the duo’s album long after the fact. If you’re one of those individuals, then now you know why, despite only containing two songs featuring both singers, it bears both their names. We’re sorry to be the bearing of such a sad story, but as you listen to their final collaborations, hopefully you’ll be able to take at least a little comfort from the wonderful stuff we got while Hathaway was still here.