Donny Hathaway’s first choice!
Flack’s first album came out in 1969 and had the suitable name First Take. Here, we find a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye and Marvin Gaye’s hit Ain’t No Mountain High Enough in a jazzier version, and not as a duet.
However, her biggest single was The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, which was featured in Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty For Me, a movie based around a stalker who, apart from loving Clint, also obsessed over the tune Misty.
Her next album, Chapter Two (1970), included Let It Be Me (also covered by Elvis, Willie Nelson, Ray Lamontagne) and Just Like A Woman by Bob Dylan.
On Quiet Fire (1970), we find To Love Somebody (Bee Gees), Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel), and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (Carole King).
The 1972 album Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway had another Carole King tune, You’ve Got A Friend, as well as You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling (Phil Spector and The Righteous Brothers).
Donny Hathaway sang many duets with Roberta, all worth checking out as these are two of the best singers you’ll ever hear.
In 1973, Roberta Flack peaked when she released Killing Me Softly, which contained her signature song Killing Me Softly with His Song and Suzanne (Cohen again).
There was one more classic to come from Roberta in 1975 with Feel Like Makin’ Love. The title track as a single did well and was later covered by George Benson and, even later, D’Angelo.
Her next bunch of albums for two decades would be either greatest hits compilations or studio albums with no hits until Roberta (1994) when she was back doing big tunes in Let’s Stay Together (Al Green), Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King), Angel Eyes (Matt Dennis), My Romance, and In A Sentimental Mood.
If you want to hear some extremely well-recorded, mixed, played, and sung Soul music from the ’70s, you should check out the Roberta Flack albums and tunes mentioned in this article.
Roberta Flack Tunes | Related Pages
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
You can learn how to play Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye using chords, chord analysis, lyrics, and the original recording.
| Bm7/A | G#m7b5 | Gmaj7 | Em9 |
Ain’t no mountain high, ain’t no valley low, ain’t no river wide enough, baby…
Angel Eyes
You can learn how to play Angel Eyes by Frank Sinatra using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and Spytunes video guitar lessons.
| Am Am/G Am/F# Am/F | Am/E Am/Eb |
Try to think that love’s not around…
Killing Me Softly With His Song
You can learn how to play Killing Me Softly With His Song by Roberta Flack using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, TAB, and the original recording.
| Fm7 | Bbm7 |
Strumming my pain with his fingers…
Let’s Stay Together
You can learn how to play Let’s Stay Together by Al Green using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and the original recording.
| F (Fsus4) | F | Dm9 | Dm9 |
I, I’m so in love with you…
The Thrill Is Gone
You can learn how to play The Thrill Is Gone by B.B. King using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and a Spytunes video guitar lesson.
| Bm7 | Bm7 | Bm7 | Bm7 |
The thrill is gone, the thrill is gone away…
You’ve Got A Friend
Learn how to play You’ve Got A Friend by Carole King (and James Taylor) using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, TAB, and the original recordings.
| Em | B7/F# | Em B7/F# | G B7/F# Em Em/D |
When you’re down and troubled and you need some lovin’ care…
Roberta Flack on the web
Artists & Bands
Behind every single tune you learn, there’s an artist or band with an entire catalogue of music, waiting to be discovered.
Find out more about these great Artists & Bands, and let their tunes guide you to success.
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was an article about Roberta Flack tunes, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.