Carole KingвЂ™s song becomes like a hymn, with the audience singing the chorus.

Between them, they electrify material from HathawayвЂ™s first two albums as well as YouвЂ™ve Got a Friend from the album with Flack. Behind them is a watertight rhythm section with Willie Weeks on bass, Fred White on drums and Eric DeRouen on congas. Supporting HathawayвЂ™s vocals and electric piano are guitarists Phil Upchurch, Cornell Dupree and Mike Howard. There is nothing perfunctory about this live set. It frequented the US charts in tandem with the album heвЂ™d cut with Roberta Flack and established him as one of the greatest writers and performers of his generation. Intimate and understated, Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway is an album that needs to be appreciated fully once again.Recorded in two intimate clubs better known for their showcasing of folk and rock, The Troubadour in LA and The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, this live album enhanced Donny HathawayвЂ™s reputation. Although Flack has sung with several other singers since, nothing has come close to the special magic they arrived at on this record. Its mixture of covers and deep, soul-searching tunes, beautifully played and sung, was a one-off.ДЇlack and Hathaway recorded sporadically together throughout the 70s until HathawayвЂ™s tragic death in 1979. It was during the recording of the album that FlackвЂ™s rendition of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, from her debut solo album, became an enormous hit, giving the public a voracious appetite for Flack and HathawayвЂ™s material. Be Real Black for Me was a perfect anthem for the вЂblack is beautifulвЂ™ movement, a celebration of African-Americanism.ДЄs it progresses, the album becomes ever more solemn and sombre вЂ“ it closes with a beautiful rendition of the old sacred song Come Ye Disconsolate which leads into Mood, an astonishing, intimate instrumental seven-minute piano duet that showcased both playersвЂ™ classical training. A cover of YouвЂ™ve Lost That Loving Feeling detunes the drama of Phil SpectorвЂ™sВ Righteous BrothersВ original and makes it an anguished urban whisper between lovers. People who bought the album on the strength of that hit were surprised to find a work of great depth and tenderness. It sounds as sweet, breezy and peachy as any ofВ Stevie WonderвЂ™s high-period ballads, and remained on the US charts for best part of a year. A molasses-sweet pop song, it was written by Ralph Macdonald and William Salter and originally intended for vocal groupВ The 5th Dimension. The song that really cemented the popularity of Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway was Where Is the Love. Flack and HathawayвЂ™s reading is so heartfelt and emotional, it is probably the best cover of KingвЂ™s original.ДЄ5 вЂњYouвЂ™ve Lost That Loving FeelingвЂќ 6:36 Released simultaneously with James TaylorвЂ™s version, the two covers vied for US chart space. They took the song out of middle-class bohemian bedsits and relocated it to the inner city. It was WexlerвЂ™s suggestion that the duo initially record Carole KingвЂ™s YouвЂ™ve Got a Friend.

Flack and Hathaway had been friends at Howard University, and Hathaway had played piano on FlackвЂ™s early albums. One of the best duet albums of all time, Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway was made at the request of Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler.

Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway вЂЋ- 1974 вЂ“ Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway

Roberta flack donny hathaway 1972 rar