"Feel Like Makin' Love" Roberta Flack Hand Signed FDC From 1969
$
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Description
Up for auction "Feel Like Makin' Love" Roberta Flack Hand Signed First Day Cover Dated 1969.
ES-3240
Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February
10, 1937) is an American singer. She is known for her No.
1 singles "The First
Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His
Song", "Feel Like
Makin' Love"; and "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You",
two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway. Flack is the only solo artist to win the Grammy Award
for Record of the Year on two consecutive years: "The
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won at the 1973 Grammys and "Killing Me Softly with His
Song" won at the 1974 Grammys. Flack lived
with a musical family, born in Black Mountain,
North Carolina to parents Laron LeRoy, a Veterans Administration draftsman, and Irene Council, Flack
a
church organist, on February 10, 1937 (some sources also say 1939) and
raised in Arlington, Virginia. Growing up she
often accompanied the choir of Lomax
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church by playing hymns and
spirituals on piano, but she also enjoyed going to the "Baptist church down the street" to listen to
contemporary gospel music, such as that performed by Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke. When Flack was nine,
she started taking an interest in playing the piano, and during her early teens, Flack so excelled
at classical piano that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship. By age 15, she entered Howard University,
making her one of the youngest students ever to enroll there. She eventually
changed her major from piano to voice, and became an assistant conductor of the
university choir. Her direction of a production of Aida received
a standing ovation from the Howard University faculty. Flack is a member
of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and was made an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma by the Eta Delta Chapter at Howard
University for her outstanding work in promoting music education. Roberta Flack
became a student teacher at a
school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. She
graduated from Howard University at 19 and began graduate studies in music, but the sudden death of her
father forced her to take a job teaching music and English in Farmville, North Carolina. Before becoming a professional
singer-songwriter, Flack returned to Washington, D.C. and taught at Browne
Junior High and Rabaut Junior High. She also taught private piano lessons out
of her home on Euclid St. NW. During this period, her music career began to
take shape on evenings and weekends in Washington, D.C. area night spots. At
the Tivoli Club, she accompanied opera singers at
the piano. During intermissions, she would sing blues, folk, and pop standards in
a back room, accompanying herself on the piano. Later, she performed several
nights a week at the 1520 Club, again providing her own piano accompaniment. Around
this time, her voice teacher, Frederick "Wilkie" Wilkerson, told her
that he saw a brighter future for her in pop music than in the classics. She modified her
repertoire accordingly and her reputation spread. Flack began
singing professionally after being hired to perform regularly at Mr. Henry's
Restaurant, on Capitol Hill, Washington,
DC in 1968. The atmosphere in Mr.
Henry's was welcoming and the club turned into a showcase for the young music
teacher. Her voice mesmerized locals and word spread. A-list entertainers who
were appearing in town would come in late at night to hear her sing (frequent
visitors included Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Ramsey Lewis and others). As
restaurant owner Henry Yaffe recalled, "She told me if I could give her
work there three nights a week, she would quit teaching." He did and she
did. To meet Roberta's exacting standards, Yaffe transformed the apartment
above the bar into the Roberta Flack Room. "I got the oak paneling from
the old Dodge Hotel near Union Station. I put in heavy upholstered chairs, sort
of a conservative style from the 50s and an acoustical system designed
especially for Roberta. She was very demanding. She was a perfectionist."
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