Roberta Flack's music was an important part of my musical education. Her duet with Donny Hathaway "Where Is The Love" is my favorite song of hers, the second is "Feel Like Makin' Love". "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" had been a massive hit and inescapable in the spring/summer of 1972, then "Killing Me Softly With His Song" became another summer favorite, #1 for five weeks; the woman was on a serious roll. The #1 pop streak continued with "Feel Like Makin' Love" which made its chart debut in June 1974, but not without some controversy.
There had been some trouble during these sessions that saw her producer Joel Dorn quitting the project due to some dissension with Atlantic executives. Then a new, younger producer was enlisted but he did not last very long until he stopped showing up for work. So Roberta decided to finish the album on her own dubbing herself as producer Rubina Flake and spent eight months completing it. There is a thank you on the album from her to her friend Quincy Jones....I wonder if she got some advice from him on the mixing....
The song was written by Kansas City born and Nebraska raised Eugene McDaniels, who had pop hits of his own with "A Hundred Pounds Of Clay", a #3 Hot100 hit in 1961 with "Tower Of Strength" that went to #5 that same year. She heard the song he wrote and knew she could make it her own. Her instincts were dead on as Flack's song hit #1 Pop, R&B and Adult Contemporary. "Feel Like Makin' Love" sounded like a reverie on the radio, it just floated all around me with the energy of the impending arrival of summer.
As we go to spring into summer, this timing of this song is topical since the lyrics of "strolling in the park, watching winter turn to spring" are so evocative of this time of year for me like when I first heard it during spring thaw! I found a lovely string section I don't remember hearing in the original single version and brought them forward. You know how much of a strings fan I am, and they really help to take the song to the next level.
It was nominated for three Grammies; Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
I love Roberta's duet with Donny Hathaway "Back Together Again" from 1979 now a disco funk classic. The rest of the LP it was on had some great music, "God Don't Like Ugly" comes to mind. "Stay With Me" is a hauntingly lovely tribute to Donny, if you haven't heard I highly recommend the album, it's solid and still sounds surprisingly fresh!
This remix I dedicate to my friend, niecy. hang on in there, sistah!
29 мар 2021
