Roberta Flack Documentary ‘Roberta’: Top Takeaways, Facts

Clint Eastwood helped her make GRAMMY history

Back in 1968, Flack caught the attention of Les McCann who saw her performing at a nightclub in Washington, D.C.. He helped get her an audition for Atlantic Records.

After three years of it being out, Clint Eastwood heard “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” from her debut album, First Take, on the radio. Flack believed the record “didn’t have the wide acceptance until people could associate something visual with it.”

Eastwood chose it for his directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, and though she wanted to adjust parts of it, he wanted it as it was in its entirety. “I want every note, every breath,” Flack recalled. She went on to win Record of the Year at the 1973 GRAMMYs and won again the following year with “Killing Me Softly.” Flack became the first artist in history to win Record of the Year for two consecutive years.

She produced under her alter-ego, Rubina Flake

An excerpt from Ann Powers’ Roberta Flack: The Virtuoso was narrated in the film when they spoke on Flack’s music persona.

“Roberta Flack has always held two souls in her body. She was herself […] Even then, in her deepest being, she was Rubina Flake—renowned concert artiste effortlessly dazzling Carnegie Hall crowds with her performances,” Powers expressed.

She noted, “Rubina helped Roberta endure the indignities faced by gifted black children in the South, as when she’d sing ‘Carry Me Back To Old Virginny’ for contest judges in hotels where she wasn’t allowed to stay the night. Her alter ego helped her feel glamorous and capable when others told her she was imperfect. Rubina had no need to respect others’ restrictions.”

Many of her close friends didn’t know she had an alter ego. Valerie Simpson stated, “She was the nucleus for the production […] We see that in all kind of arts that the women get pushed to the side and the guys hold onto the credit.”

She produced records like “Feel Like Makin’ Love” under her psedonym and people didn’t want to give her full credit for it. However, Flack refused to have limitations on her contributions and paved the way for other female producers.

She was signed without Joel Dorn hearing her voice

Joel Dorn described female vocalists as “chick singers [who were] a problem and a hassle.” He’d heard of Flack before, but Les McCann didn’t take no for an answer. Dorn sent over the contract first, then heard the tape and heard her. “It was unbelievable,” Dorn reflected.

Flack’s debut album, First Take, wasn’t a hyperbole. It was actually recorded in one take after they flew her to New York City to record for the first time. She recorded 40 songs and they chose the best eight. Her music embodied the Black Lives Matter movement before its conception. Her debut includes hit singles, “Compared To What,” “Tryin’ Times,” “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” and “Ballad Of The Sad Young Men.”

Her success led to her divorce

Flack met her ex-husband, Steve Novosel in 1964 when she was teaching grade-school. The white jazz double bassist and fellow educator realized that music was their common thread. They got married in July 1965 and lived in Virginia, prior to the Supreme Court case, Loving vs. Virginia. Her family accepted him while his family disowned him for several years.

Novosel was unaware of “how good a musician she was.”

Despite her singing “race records,” Novosel said, “She was a strong lady with convictions about her music and where she wanted to go. I knew that and I was as supportive as I could be, but I knew it would be a rough road for her.” However, with her blossoming success, he was still “running around, making $10 gigs.”

Novosel said, “I had to go.”

Flack’s “Killing Me Softly” was a “gift”

A heartbroken, 19-year-old Lori Lieberman wrote “Killing Me Softly With His Song” in 1972. Initially written as a poem on a napkin after a Don McLean concert, Flack heard the ballad on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York City and played it five times.

Flack rearranged the record—from the opening to chord structure— and made it her own. She shared that the record was “given to me as a gift.” While on tour with Quincy Jones that year, she performed it for the first time. Due to the audience’s response, Jones said, “Ro, don’t sing that daggone song no more until you record it.”

Her version was released in January 1973, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks and later won two GRAMMYs for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.

The light that stayed lit in Donny’s honor

Flack met Donny Hathaway at Howard University. They were kindred spirits with a “creative electricity between them” that she initially mistook as a crush. “They amplify each other’s star power. They brought out the best in each other,” said Emily Lordi.

Flack was one of the last people who spoke with him before his tragic death. After the incident, she kept a light on in her living room because it was the last piano Hathaway played. It was where he wrote a song titled “Lift My Spirits” after not having written for several years and played it for her.

She was close friends and neighbors with Yoko Ono

Flack was the first Black woman to live at The Dakota, an iconic apartment building in the Upper West Side of New York City. John Lennon used to practice and write music on a grand piano “the wall over” from Flack’s place.

“They were good to each other,” said her friend James Whitmore. Sean Lennon shared, “I was very blessed that I grew up with the coolest neighbor in the world. At first, you know, I didn’t even think of Roberta as this incredible artist and musician.” He even called her “Aunt Roberta,” and said she was “very supportive” of him.

She and Yoko worked together on “Goodbye Sadness” after John’s death. “She has the capacity to take songs as a tool to express herself, but each time she does that, it becomes Roberta.” While working together, Yoko said there was a “beautiful, spiritual exchange.” They helped each other battle the sexism they faced in the industry.