SONG SATURDAY; Roberta Flack

SONG SATURDAY;

ROBERTA FLACK,

THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know what you must be thinking, this is Sunday not Saturday..........this was ready to be posted yesterday and then tragedy.........my mouse suddenly died. Not a lot you can do on a computet without a mouse, hence the rather late posting of Song Saturday.

Roberta Flack (born February 10, 1937) is an American singer-songwriter and musician known for her jazz, soul, and folk music. She is  best known for singles such as "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Where Is the Love?". "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won the 1973 Grammy Record of the Year and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" won the same award at the Grammy Awards of 1974.

 

THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE HAS GOT TO BE ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SONGS OF ALL TIME.

She was raised in Arlington, Virginia and first discovered the work of African American musical artists when she heard Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke sing in a predominantly black Baptist church.

Flack so excelled at classical piano that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship. She matriculated at Howard University at the age of 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. Her direction of a production of Aida received a standing ovation from the Howard University faculty. Flack is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Flack became the first black student teacher at an all-white school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. She graduated from Howard University at 19 and began graduate studies in music, but the sudden death of her father forced her to take a job teaching music and English for $2800 a year in Farmville, North Carolina.

Her music career began to take shape on evenings and weekends in Washington, 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. Later, she performed several nights a week at the 1520 Club, again providing her own piano accompaniment.

Amasingly her Atlantic recordings did not sell very 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. Eastwood has remained an admirer and friend of Flack's ever since. In 1983, she recorded the end music to the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact.  He always was a man with impeccable taste, he knew what he was doing when he chose her…………what a wonderful voice.