Heavy Friends
Saturday November 29th, 2025 with Heavy Ben
In Memoriam - 2025 (Part 2)

Part two in the annual Heavy Friends series that pays respects to the departed. Part one October 18 https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/410/72462.html Pictured: Let's start with a trivia question. Who was the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in consecutive years? The answer is Roberta Flack. Flack's career took a while to get rolling. Her first three albums (1969-71) for Atlantic were well received by critics, but not big sellers. She got a boost from an unlikely source: Clint Eastwood. In 1972, Eastwood used "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", from Flack's 1969 "First Take", for the soundtrack of his directorial debut Play Misty for Me. Atlantic rush-released the song as a single and it became the biggest hit of 1972, spending six consecutive weeks at No. 1 and earning Flack a million-selling gold disc. The song was awarded the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1973. In 1983, Flack recorded the end music to the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact, at Eastwood's request. In 1972, Flack began recording regularly with Donny Hathaway, scoring hits such as the Grammy-winning "Where Is the Love" (1972) and later "The Closer I Get to You" (1978). Flack was devastated when Hathaway died by suicide in 1979. Hathaway's funeral was conducted by the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Flack scored her second No. 1 hit in 1973, "Killing Me Softly with His Song" that was awarded both Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, at the 1974 Grammy Awards. Pop was only part of Flack's repertoire, as she contributed to the "quiet storm" radio format, that blended rhythm & blues ballads, jazz fusion, sophisticated pop, and smoov soul sounds. We will listen to my favourite Roberta Flack performance, her 1969 recording of "Compared To What", a protest song written by Eugene McDaniels. Pianist Les McCann wrote the liner notes to Flack's debut album "First Take", and scored a hit with "Compared To What" in a live recording later in 1969 with tenor sax player Eddie Harris from the Montreux Jazz Festival. The tapes of the impromptu concert were recorded by the festival's organizers in Switzerland and passed to Atlantic, who released them after paying a fee of less than $100. The "Swiss Movement" album and "Compared To What" single both sold millions of copies. On a personal note, when I tried to play music 20 years ago, my band was inspired by Roberta Flack to take on "Compared To What". The performance with Ron Carter (bass) and Ray Lucas (drums) still stops me in my tracks whenever I hear the song. How much more better a rhythm section can you get? Like none. None more better. We could never pull it off like they did. That Flack sang and played piano at this level on her debut record as a 22 year-old is stunning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberta_Flack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Take_(album) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compared_to_What (to embiggen the show icon, right-click and choose "Open image in new tab")