You may not have known the name Roberta Flack, but you had heard “Killing Me Softly with His Song” is one of the most recognizable songs in the last few decades.
But it took a few years for Flack to hit it big as the old saying goes, “It takes 10 years to be an overnight sensation.” Thankfully, Flack music style caught the attention of Clint Eastwood in his directorial debut Play Misty for Me who used her song “The First Time I Saw Your Face.”
Flack recorded the song in 1969 but it was only released when the movie premiered in 1971. Considering the movie’s tone of a jazz music deejay, played by Eastwood, terrorized by a fan, wonderfully played by the late Jessica Walter, who mistakes a one-night stand for a fully committed relationship.
Eastwood mixed jazz and rhythm & blues with horror and social commentary. It made Flack an instant success as she had a hit with the song that sweet-natured song has a creepy underlying tone when you consider the context of the movie. Flack would have success the following year with “Killing Me Softly With His Song.”
Prior to hitting it big, Flack taught music and English as a public education teacher. It was actually her support for education and reading that led to her being discovered as she performed at a fund-raiser for a library in the Washington, D.C. area. In attendance was Les McCann, jazz singer, who got her a recording gig at Atlantic Records.
In the 1980s, she sang the song “Together Through the Years” which was used for the family sitcom Valerie, later renamed The Hogan Family after Valerie Harper left the show in one of the more controversial contract disputes in TV history. It was performed over the opening credits for each of the show’s six seasons. And even though she didn’t appear on-screen, she supplied the voice for Michael Jackson’s mother in the “Bad” short film directed by none other than Martin Scorsese.
But in 1996, she was introduced to a new generation of music lovers when The Fugee’s hip-hop remix “Killing Me Softly.” In 1999, she got her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and continued to perform in the early 21st Century. In 2022, she was diagnosed with ALS which made her unable to continue to perform. She passed away from cardiac arrest on Feb. 24 at the age of 88.
Even though she didn’t hit it big until her 30s, she proved your never too old to start a new career.
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Zane Says 