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Legendary R&B Hitmaker Passes Away At 88

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Roberta Flack, the 1970s artist behind “Killing Me Softly” and some of the decade’s most memorable hits, died at 88 last week.

News of the R&B singer’s death came from her publicist Elaine Schock, who said Flack was surrounded by her loved ones. The Grammy-winning singer and songwriter was known for her passionate piano performances on her debut album “First Take” which achieved platinum status in 1969.

She beat that feat with 1973’s album “Killing Me Softly,” going double platinum and nearly winning the Grammy for Album of the Year, losing to Stevie Wonder. However, her eponymous smash single won the 1974 Grammy for Record of the Year.

No cause of death has been listed in the statement, but friend and manager Suzanne Koga told the New York Times that Flack died of a heart attack en route to a New York hospital.

Flack had been battling ALS since she was diagnosed in 2022, which she said made it “impossible to sing,” she said previously. She survived a stroke in 2016.

Some of Flack’s most recognizable hits include “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and two duets with Donny Hathaway, “Where Is the Love” and “The Closer I Get to You.” Her breakout 1973 hit, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” won the 1973 Grammy for Record of the Year, making Flack the first artist to win the category in back-to-back years.

“I grew up playing piano for the choir: Handel, Bach, Verdi, Mozart and all those great, wonderful, intricately written Negro spirituals,” Flack remembered in a 1991 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. She recalled sneaking out of the house to visit the Baptist church down the street, savoring raw performances by some of soul’s most unforgettable artists like Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke.

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Later in her career, Flack collaborated with Peabo Bryson for the 1980s hit “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love” and went well into the 90s, working with Maxi Priest to produce “Set the Night to Music.”

Her career spanned more than five decades, and she earned eight Grammy awards, including the Lifetime Award in 2020.

“The thing that engulfs me in music is the pulse. If I can find that heartbeat, I can live in there — in that music,” she told an interviewer in 2012 about her musical style. “I think that’s the same for everyone. I also think that that’s what makes a song a hit.”

Later in life, Flack devoted her talents to charity, working benefits concerts into her touring schedule and helping direct the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx. She spoke on behalf of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and allowed the organization to use her hit “The First Time” royalty-free, the New York Times reported.

Flack was married to bassist Steve Novosel from 1966 to 1972 but left behind no children or immediate heirs.

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